Pandora's end
by Shiroi Mi
Summary: A simple Kid heist takes a turn for worse when suspicious people in black makes their debut. Something is wrong, dreadfully so. Fate moves and alliances are formed. The final showdown with the organization has just truly begun.
1. Kid's heist

Title: Pandora's end

Character pairings: Usual, perhaps hint of heijixshinichi, kidxshinichi if you squint

Summary: A simple Kid heist takes a turn for worse when suspicious people in black makes their debut. Something is wrong, dreadfully so. Fate moves and alliances are formed. The final showdown with the organization has just truly begun.

Disclaimer: Own nothing... Don't sue me kay?

* * *

" _Double bells that ring alike_

_For A TIME of APPOINTMENT have arrived_

_Gentle lady I greet you hence_

_Before day comes and star descends _

_- Kaitou Kid _

_PS the odds are higher _"

Mouri Kogoro read out the latest Kid heist notice that was sent to the Suzuki Cooperation. "Kind of romantic ne? Double bells sound like wedding" Ran commented, dreamily. Conan rolled his eyes. _Again?_, he sighed inwardly but still a small smile played one his lips. Perhaps this time, a victor would finally emerge between the two.

"Gentle lady? Is there a jewel called that? " Mouri asked the young secretary of Suzuki cooperation sitting on the familiar couch of the Mouri Tantei Office. "There is not gentle lady jewel. Kid is probably referring to the Gem Torendi. Currently it is on display in Osaka's diamond festival. "Osaka?" Conan asked in surprise as a familiar image of a dark-skinned male came into mind. The pretty female nodded.

"Ja this notice was sent to Osaka?" Ran questioned. "Yes indeed, the Osaka branch of Suzuki Foundation received it yesterday. They immediately forwarded it to the main branch at Tokyo. Since Mouri-tantei is well-known, the director asked me to enlist Mouri-san's help." Tanada-san flashed a warm smile. The case was won. The next day, Conan and Ran found themselves on the express train to Osaka.

"Oi Ran-chan!" Kazuha's voice rang through the crowd at the platform. "Oh Kazuha-chan, how have you been?" Ran greeted. Mouri stifled a huge yawn after a long night's mahjong as expected. Conan followed behind Ran. "Yo Kudo." Hattori bent down and patted Conan's head like a little kid._ That's one irritating guy for you_, Conan thought.

"Here ya have th' Osaka diamon' fest." Hattori gestured to the crowded building, luxuriously decorated with carpets, chandeliers and of course exquisite diamonds from collectors all over Japan. _Rich bastards, _Conan thought as he observed the multitudes of overly well-dressed people walking in the hall.

"Nakamori-keibu?" Mouri Kogoro exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here? Aren't you in charge of Tokyo?" "This is KID heist. Of course I'm here." Nakamori replied. "This time, for sure, I'll catch Kid!" zeal fire burning in his eyes. _And you brought the entire taskforce too? What a man. _Conan thought as the familiar faces of the taskforce showed themselves surrounding a jewel box.

"Oi! Raaaannnn!" a high-pitched voice called behind them as the ojou-sama announced her arrival. _Oh man, another irritating person just appeared. _Conan had half-hoped that Sonoko wouldn't be here but it's Sonoko they are talking about, what would you expect? Ran went over to Sonoko. Kazuha followed suit, leaving Hattori and Conan at the jewel box, a little private time.

Gem Torendi sparkled under the lighting. The jewel looks expensive alright. It was small and delicate looking. They listened in to Mouri and Nakamori's conversion over the jewel.

"Gem Torendi? So this is the target? Gentle Lady. Gem Torendi. Gentle lady." Mouri said as began to think.

_What a lame pun._ Conan and Hattori had immediately noticed.

"Yes. This gem is from England. One of the most captivating gems. Under different lightings, the gem turns different colours." Nakamori-keibu explained. And then, he went into a string of expressive adjectives and speech about capturing Kid.

"Hattori" Kudou asked, snapping Hattori out of his thoughts. "Double bells... Does this festival have some bell ringing ceremony or something?" Hattori shook his head. "None t'at I know of.""So we still don't know when he's stealing it?" Kudou asked. "Nop' but somethin' bugs me about the ' a time of appointment'…" Hattori added. Kudou nodded silently.

* * *

Chapter end - 7:11 pm 4/1/10

* * *

Author notes:

The code is real though. Anyone wan try crack it? Haha.

It should give you a date and the time of heist.

PS is a hint for you all.

Pls r&r.

First DC fanfic.

mata ne?

Shiroi Mi


	2. AHHH!

DISCLAIMER: DISCLAIM EVERYTHING just to be safe. Though the heist note and the storyline is mine. I'll try to be orginial. xD

* * *

"Heiji…. **HEIJI!!!!**!" Kazuha yelled after getting no response. Hattori was rudely snapped out of his thoughts.

"What is it, bakazuka?"

"I am not BAKAZUKA. Don't call me that!" Kazuha flared.

"Ok ok. So what is it?"

"You see. Since Ran-chan and Sonoko-san is here in Osaka, I am thinking about bring them around."

"Oh, do whatever you want." Hattori was clearly uninterested. His attention returned to the copy of Kid's notice in his hand.

"Hmph." Kazuha turned to Ran and Sonoko.

"Leave the detective maniac alone. Let's go shopping! I know a good place that is…" With that Kazuha, Ran and Sonoko left the hall, chattering happily.

"ne Kudou. Have you solved the code?" Hattori asked Conan who was scribbling furiously into his Shounen Tantei Dan notebook.

A TIME of APPOINTMENT

_If we regroup this into like terms..._

AA TTT II MM EE PP NN EE O

Suddenly a thought crossed Conan. 'Let me see!" He said as he jumped up to snatch the copy of Kid's notice from Hattori without waiting for his reply.

"Oi oi!"

_Double bells that ring alike_

_For A TIME of APPOINTMENT have arrived_

_Gentle lady I greet you hence_

_Before day comes and star descends _

_- Kaitou Kid _

_PS the odds are higher _

At the same time, both Conan and Hattori, who saw Conan's notes over his head, smiled a certain similar annoying, all-knowing smile.

"I've solved it, keibu-san." came a sudden outburst before either could say anything. Both looked up in surprise at the source of the voice, Mouri Kogoro. He stood in the middle of the hall, holding up the notice with a proud smile on his face.

_Oi Oi. Daijoubu deska? (Are you sure it's alright?)_ Conan asked.

"REALLY?" Nakamori-keibu exclaimed. Mouri nodded with an overpowering air of confidence. "Ahem." He cleared his throat.

"Of course. This level of code is no match for the Sleeping Kogoro! Listen carefully, double bells is obviously the chimes of some nearby clocktower. When it chimes twice it would be either 2 pm or 2am. Given that it says 'before day comes' it is most likely 2am in the morning."

Nakamori-keibu nodded enthusiastically. "And then? What is the date?" He probed.

Immediately the air of confidence surrounding Mouri dropped. "Arhhh. That one… I still haven't worked that out."

Silence~~~

"But there is no clocktower near here." Someone from the taskforce said.

"Then what about 'Gentle lady'? Gem Torendi has nothing to do with ladies"

"And what odds?"

"What about the caps for A TIME and APPOINTMENT?"

These were followed by a million more questions that Mouri had no answers for.

"That's wron'" hattori said, after the mass outburst. "Listen up. Ya see. Double bells hints to the next line, A TIME APPOINTMENT which are in caps. If ya rearrang' the alp'aberts into doubles it becomes AA TT II MM EE PP NN EE leavin' us with T O. Then here comes da PS da odds are higher. It means for us to focus on the odd ones, meaning T O."

A collective "Ohhhh!" resounded in the hall while Conan nodded in agreement behind him. Hattori smiled and resumed.

"T and O in English alphabet is the 20th and 15th alphabet in the alphabet series. Therefore, Kid is coming at 2015, 8:15 pm." His explanation ended on a grand note.

A slight pause of awe and admiration ensued.

Suddenly, Mouri piped up, "Then what's the date of the heist?"

To that, Hattori was taken aback. A sweat dropped. "Ehhh. Ehhh…"

_One more idiot here. _Conan sighed inwardly. Aloud he said in his kiddish voice, "Feb 14 right? Heiji-niichan?"

A sudden look of understanding crossed Hattori's face. _I see. That's it._

"Yup. Its on feb 14, valentines." He confirmed.

"HUH?" resounded in the hall. "Why valentines?"

"Simple" Hattori said. "Double bells signify wedding or love. With Gem Torendi referred to as Gentle Lady giving the poem a romantic feel all point towards the upcoming festival, the valentines day."

* * *

Extra:

"Ne Kudou how did you know feb 14 is valentines day when you don't remember your birthday?"

"Baaaaaka, with Sonoko going on and on about me and Ran, how could I not know." Conan rolled his eyes.

_Not to mention Ayumi was going on and on about it as well with Haibara flashing her famous daggerish eyes at me. _

_

* * *

_

Chapter end 8 Jan 10, 9:42pm

Author notes:

Anyone got it right?

Haha. I don't think so.

But thanks to all the reviews and attempts.

The 2AM try was very good. Credits to Preemtive Karma ( .net/u/1416023/ )

Next chapter would be the debut of the BO or the syndicate as I rather like to call it.

Look out for blood, injury and sniper!

Who's who?

Look forward to it around the middle of next week!

Shiroi Mi

Reviews are a day maker.


	3. Red on white

Disclaimer: Own nothing... Don't sue me kay?

* * *

"Good evening all the viewers in front of the television. Today we are bringing you live from Osaka Jewel Fest, where Kid has announced his next heist, Gem Torendi owned by the Suzuki Foundation. Being a public holiday on Valentines day, lots of love-love couples and family has gathered at the Exhibition hall to watch Kaitou Kid."

"KID-SAMA!" "KID" "DAISUKE(love you)" "Gambette(Go for it)" resounded from the huge group of public gathered.

"Saa, from his time of announced arrival there is only 5 more minutes. The audience is getting more and more excited. Will he come by his infamous handglider? Or…"

_As if. He is most likely here already anyway. _Conan thought to himself, looking around at the people surrounding the exhibition hall. Although the police, with the usual enthusiasm from Nakamori, had surrounded a barrier from the holding case of Gem Torendi, the entire hall was packed full of people pushing to inch closer to the display box. Nakamori had given up on checking everybody some half hour ago.

Conan spotted Ran, Kazuha and Sonoko together in the middle of the cramped room, on the opposite though since they came late after their shopping.

_What is exactly so great about a petty thief who steals then returns whatever he stole. _Conan up to now still haven't figured out his motive for doing so. _Why would someone return something that he stole in the first place in perfectly good condition? _In any case, he'll get his answer once the thief is in handcuffs. Conan showed a small smirk.

"Whats up wit' all t'is people? I haven hear' of a crime t'at takes place with so many supporters!" Hattori commented in slight amazement at the number of people there who not only have no intention to catch the criminal, but were cheering the criminal on.

"KID. KID. KID"

"It's always like this." Conan replied. He was used to it, after all, he did live in Tokyo. This amount of people was nothing much different from Shibuya's shopping district during a weekend anyway.

"Stop gawking Hattori. Its embarrassing."

"1 more min to 8:15. In 30 more seconds….10…9…8…7…" the television broadcaster had begun the countdown.

"THREE. TWO. ONEEEEEEEEEE!" the crowd screamed.

A puff of pink smoke engulfed the room. A sharp inhale from the crowd as their vision was blocked by the smoke. As the smoke lifted, Kid appeared suspended at the ceiling directly above the jewel box.

Conan hastily glanced at the transparent jewel box and gave a slight sigh of relief. The gem was still intact. Their marvelous plan hasn't lost yet. Then he returned his full attention to Kid.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" began the usual overly-dramatic introduction.

Conan felt certain the darned thief had winked at him as if he knew exactly where he was. _This time, for sure, I'll wipe that smirk off your face. _Conan swore silently. His piercing eyes absorbing everything that Kid was going and calculating the next most possible move.

"To start things off, thank you so much for coming to today's show. And also a very happy valentines' day to all the young couples!" He gave a alluring smile to the cameras below.

"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING!!! GO GET HIM NOW!!!" Nakamori yelled frantically through his radio. Even though Conan was about 5 feet away from the nearest guard he could hear him perfectly.

"Today, I have prepared a present for all of you viewers. Please enjoy." the instant he said that, the electricity of the entire exhibition hall tripped. Kid disappeared as colourful fireworks crackled cheerfully or perhaps romantically into the … **ceiling**?!?

_WHAT???!!!_ _Indoor fireworks?!!?? _Was the first reaction of both Conan and Hattori. Their openly shocked expressions were immediately reigned in.

Everyone's attention was drawn towards the very pretty indoor 'fireworks'.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" came Nakamori's very audible scream into the radio. "GET THE BACK UP ELECTRICITY! KID IS STILL HERE!"

"But…it isn't working. The backup generator is down as well." came the hesitant reply. Conan could imagine the guard or whoever that was on the line, holding the radio an arm's length away from his ear in anticipation of Nakamori's very famous….

**"???????????????" **

Conan gave a half amused smile as he watched Nakamori storm off towards, he deduced, the breaker room. He watched him squeeze and made his way out of the hall. But more importantly, where was Kid?

He examined the hall as closely as possible under the frequent but irregular blasts of light from the 'fireworks'. He knew better than to look for something white cause Kid is most likely already blended into the crowd in normal clothing. He spied a suspicious couple. The reason they caught his attention was that the boy looked explicitly like him, Shinichi. But that wasn't the point, was it?

He scanned the area again for suspicious movements. As he looked, a flicker of silver caught his eye. He stared into the space where he saw the flicker. That kind of spark must mean it was something metallic. He stared and stared but the flicker did not occur again. He passed it as some silver wrist watch of some rich guy.

But somehow, he had a gut feeling that something was wrong, off place but he didn't know why.

After about 3 minutes, the 'indoor fireworks' ended and Kid reappeared in midair. This time holding the gems in his hand.

Before Conan had time to gawk at how Kid managed to get that gem out of that high-voltage electrified box (credits to Mouri) , a psssht was heard and Kid crumbled to the floor clutching his left shoulder. Fresh red blood tainting the white cape. But it was only for a fraction of second before Kid used his last ounce of strength to set off a smoke bomb. Still it didn't escape Conan's piercing eyes.

A sudden realization drawn upon him, Kid was shot. He stopped short as panic rose in the crowd.

Piercing screams and madness ensued. Females were screaming, People were running everywhere. He was pushed nudged and tossed about in the craziness. Everyone was fleeing to the only exit of the hall, jamming the entire door. The police tried to retain the crowd but to no avail.

Conan looked at Hattori, catching his eye. They nodded in agreement as they made their way towards the place where Kid had fallen.

* * *

KID POV

_Damn I can't lose consciousness like this! _ Kid forced his brain to think as his vision blurred due to the pain. He had been shot before alright but this time, it seemed to have hit a major artery. The blood wasn't stopping.

At the corner of his blurry eyes, he saw the person he least wanted to see or maybe it was most wanted to see. _Tantei-kun._ His small stature was making his way half running, half tripping due to the crowd towards him. A very worried expression on his face. He blinked to focus his eyes which was being increasing difficult.

Tantei-kun had another friend with him. A taller darker male. Police? Detective?

_Damn it was over. His identity was going to get exposed. _

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_No. He wasn't going to like it end like this. He is KID!_ Kid concluded as he watched Conan approach so fast to him that he was going to reach him anytime now.

Kid felt his consciousness starting to fade……. Tantei-kun was yelling something at him but he couldn't register anything.

A budge in his pocket to him that he still have 1 more flash bomb. With that, he could perhaps get away but sprinting out into Jii's car which was just behind his building. He could still use his escape route that he planned. But the problem was could he last that long? His consciousness, that is.

Kid forced his hand to retrieve that flash bomb in his pocket. His fingers enclosed around the capsule. He painfully removed the capsule. _Shit_ he had to do it faster if not tantei-kun would get to him first. But the pain was numbing his brain as well. His body wasn't functioning well. Tantei-kun was only 5 more steps away. It was now or never.

"Don't" came tantei-kun's firm, somewhat reassuring whisper to his ear as he firmly grasped the hand that was holding the flash bomb. Kid looked into tantei-kun's eyes, feeling so completely helpless, vulnerable. He hated his feeling. This sinking feeling like drowning forever and forever.

'I won't. Trust me."

At that, Kid collapsed.

* * *

Chapter end 14 Jan 10:16pm.

Hmm. Not a really good chapter. i wanted MORE excitement and climax. Sighs... I could so imagine this whole thing in an anime style. but i can't put it into words. OH NO!!! :(

but still i hoped you enjoyed the chapter ... somewhat.

Next chapter would be Kid's confession.

I wonder if it is possible to do fireworks indoor, would it blast the rooftop off? That would be cool ne?

Please Review.

Shiroi Mi.


	4. Kid's confession

Disclaimer: the usual.

* * *

"Is he gonna be alrite?"

"How would I know? I'm not exactly a doctor you know…"

"Whateva. Damn the wound isn't closin' properly. Do something Kudo."

"Oh shuddup Hattori."

"I still don't get why we can't just take this darned thief to the police and…"

"He coming to. Just keep your trap shut for a moment will you?"

Kaitou's conscious slowly came back to him as conversation swirled rather meaninglessly around him. He felt … numb. Somewhere he felt pain, deep down he felt fear. His sixth sense had already told him he was in somewhere unknown, not in his mansion and the people talking wasn't Jii or his accomplices.

"Do you hear me, Kid?" came a rather familiar voice.

_Ahh yes. It was tantei-kun's voice. _

_Ahh yes. I was shot during a heist. _

_Ahh yes. I collapsed in __**TANTEI-KUN'S ARMS!**_

_**Damn. **_

"Oi. Kid. Wake up."

Kid opened his eyes wearily. The light of the house he seemed to be in was thoughtfully dimmed. He really owed Tantei-kun big time, not that he was ever going to admit it.

He first registered the small face of Tantei-kun over him then slight further away a taller Osaka friend of Tantei-kun's. He seemed to be in someone's house. Good at least Tantei-kun hasn't exactly cuffed him and sent him off to the nearest police post he could find.

'I hear you, tantei-kun." Kid tried to say in his usual light tone but it came out croaked and awful. He involunteeringly tried to sit up sending jolts of pain rippling through his body.

"Baka. Don't move. We couldn't bring you to a hospital so the wounds aren't dressed very well." Conan explained.

"Be grateful ya brat. Thank to tis kid here. I couldn't chuck ya off straight to the police." Hattori sulked.

"Drop it."

"Damn. I still don't get why on earth ya didn't"

"Just drop it Hattori." Conan rolled his eyes, interrupting Hattori's ten-thousandth time of that complain.

A small chuckle disrupted the tense, quarrelling mode of the two. Both turned in wide-eyed surprise at the source of that sound, KID!

"Sorry Sorry." Kid replied still smiling. "It's just that you two look like having a lover's quarrel."

"KIDDDDDDDD!" Both chorused in unison.

"If ya say that one more time, I'm gonna punch you in the ribs."

"Hey that's mean. I'm hurt you know." Kid replied lightly, regaining his poker-face.

"that makes me more wan' to do it."

"Alright. Alright" Conan interrupted the two.

"Let's move on to the main topic." Conan began.

Kid's stomach gave a uneasy churn. He had so so so so so dreaded this moment.

"So what do you want to know? My name? My blood type?" Kid said coolly though he was really panicking now.

"That would be cool, but no. What I really want to know is, why were you shot and why did you know you were going to be shot as evidenced by the bullet proof vest. I don't think thieves going around wearing bullet proof vests."

A uncomfortable moment of silence passed as the two detectives stared down at the bedridden Kid. Rather belittling if you can imagine.

"I suggest you reconsider that tantei-kun. It isn't to the best of your future to know that." Kid replied, trying to dodge the question. If there was one time he would not allow himself to do, it would be to drag another innocent down into his life's mess. "Seriously. It would shorten your life span."

Kid looked into Conan's piercing eyes. He sighed when he realised that for this, tantei-kun was not going to back off.

"You will seriously regret this tantei-kun and you too, Tantei-kun's Osaka friend."

"I don't think so." Hattori said as he remembered Shinichi's story. After he had heard that, he wasn't going to be surprised at almost anything else.

"Alright. To tell you everything. I'll have to start from the beginning. The very beginning I guess."

After a hassle over helping Kid get seated up, since he insisted on it, Conan and Hattori sat down with a contented sigh onto the sofa as Kid began his story.

"Since you won the duel Tantei-kun. I shall give you your reward as promised. My name is Kaitou Kuroba. In daytime I am just a normal high-school student. You probably heard of my father, Toichi Kuroba." He paused, looking at Conan and Hattori straight in their eyes.

"Ahh. That famous magician that died during one of his magic performance?" Conan chipped in.

"yes. That's him. Well he was originally the first kaitou kid. I am his son. The 'accident' on stage was no accident, it was murder." Kid's voice was thick with bitterness. The lost of his father must have been harsh on him.

"Of course those idiotic police couldn't find enough evidence so it was passed as unfortunate accident. I believed that too, until the day I turned 16. When I found out the truth behind Kaitou Kid's existence."

Conan and Hattori remained silent. Kid drew a deep breath and continued.

"Let me put it this way. Kaitou Kid existed for a single reason which is also the same reason why I became Kid. Also the reason why I always return what I stole. To put it in a simple way, there is this gem which is like a pandora's box. It grants immorality when a certain comet, the Pandora comet, passes the earth. However there are some bad people after it, they forced Tou-san to find it for them but Tou-san refused which resulted in his… erasure. So to prevent these bad people to get it, I am trying to find that gem before they do. They know that I am an obstacle to them so they had been trying to erase me as well."

Kid finished, looking at both of the silent detectives waiting for their response.

"Well… that would explain all those bullet wounds and non-professionally treated wounds and your bullet proof vest." conan said cautiously. He had a certain not so pleasant thought of these bad people Kid was talking about. Although he hoped for million times that those people were not whom he thought they were, the sad reality remains. Only one truth prevails. Eliminating all other possibilities, whatever remains can only be the truth.

"Well yeah." Kid replied offhandedly.

A solemn silence dawned upon the three of them.

As though as secret signal, Conan nodded to Hattori. Hattori stood to leave. Kid, or rather Kaitou, watched in silence as Hattori walked out of the room and closed the door, leaving tantei-kun and kid alone. Kid felt uneasy. Was he calling the police? Going to scream his name out from the top of world?

"let me just make a wild guess shall i?" Conan began suddenly and in a rather serious tone, clearly not of a first-grader, drawing Kaitou's attention back to him.

"Go ahead."

"These bad people. Are they in anyway related to… let's say liquor."

* * *

Back to back updates! Woots.

This is bonus cause yesterday was my birthday! xD

Shiroi Mi

Chapter end; 16 Jan 2010. 6:51 pm.


	5. You owe me BIG TIME!

Disclaimer: own nothing, sue nothing

* * *

In the syndicate's HQ....

"I heard you let him loose, Sake." A tall male cloaked in purely black said coldly.

"Yeah. He was quick even though I definitely shot him clean." Sake replied.

"So he had help… to get himself out of that building."

"That is most likely the case. His bloody trails stopped suddenly halfway in the hall before the fire engulfed everything else."

"Chi. What if he leak on us."

"Don't worry Gin. We scared him good enough since the last time so much that he won't ever talk about us again."

* * *

At the same time, somewhere else

"heh heh heh. Liquor, don't joke tantei-kun. How would I know whether they drink." Kid tried to replied as casually as possible, but his poker-face was slipping.

"I didn't say drink. What about… names or rather codenames." Conan stuck home. He saw very distinctively the pupils of Kaitou's eyes widen. The pupils were always the major giveaways.

Kid made no response to deny it. This further confirms Conan's theory.

* * *

_1 year ago when Kaitou had reappeared as KID for a year. _

_"Let me introduce myself. My name is Sake." _

_A cold slippery voice sounded behind Kid. Without turning around Kid knew that a gun was pointed at him behind his back. He could feel the barrel pressing against his back. _

_"Yo mister. Isn't waving around that dangerous instrument you have illegal in Japan?" Kid replied lightly. His Poker-face still intact. _

_"Heh. Talk about yourself. Isn't it stealing illegal?" No signs of amusement in his voice. _

_"Well perhaps. So Sake do you drink sake?" _

_"Listen. I haven't got time to play with you or continue your aimless chitchat. Let me just ask you why are you taking over as Kid?" _

_Kaitou was shocked at his words. This man, this dangerous man who is waving a gun around, knew his father's secret. Who was this person? _

_"I have always been Kid." _

_"Don't lie. I knew your father well. I remember his look of death." The answer came more like a hiss. _

_Kid stoned. This man, this man that was wielding the gun behind him was his father's murderer! _

_"Ohh. So what business have you with me?" kid replied coolly. _

_"Simple. We know that you had been taking over your father's duty. We are here to strike you a deal. Find Pandora." _

_"Why should I make deal with shady people like you?" Kid winced a little as the gun barrel pressed harder on his back, sending pain signals to his brains. _

_"Ho? Why not we see your mama die before we continue this conversation?" _

_Kid's eyes widened in surprise. Fear immobilized his body as a sudden explosion sounded. He turned towards the source of the sound. Blazing flames were reflected in his eyes. And the house that was on fire? His. _

* * *

"Kid." Kaitou snapped back to the present times as Conan called his name or rather his alias.

"You were remembering something." It was a statement, not a question.

Kid nodded numbly. The fears of that day relived in him. Though his mother was thankfully wasn't at home at that time, Sake had promised him that if he ever ever said anything about them to anyone. Both the person and his mother will be wiped out.

Surprisingly Conan did not press the issue. "Hattori!" He called out. A knock came in response before Hattori himself stepped into the room.

"So it's over? Was our suspicion correct?" He asked.

"Don't pretend not to know. You were eavesdropping on us." Conan said accusingly.

"Hey hey. I wan' to know too ya know." Hattori said. "It is partially also about me too!"

"Whatever." Conan shrugged his shoulders. He knew it would turn out this way whether he sent Hattori out a not, but sending him out was only to ease Kid's tension.

Hattori's re-entry was also to lighten the mood. Although Conan would never dare to tell him that he used him to set the mood, for he would earn about a million smacks from him.

* * *

'So he's still alive?" Vodka asked after Gin returned from the meeting with Sake fuming.

"Yeah. That bastard missed." Gin replied curtly.

"Anyway why are we not given the orders to kill him? We have an agent so close to him so why not?"

"Boss wants to use him to find the jewel."

"Use him? How?"

"Argh. You dumbass. He help us find the jewel, and we take it, along with his life."

* * *

Kid watched in silence as the topic about liquor and the syndicate was dropped. He was slightly amazed and perhaps amused that the two detectives had gone back into their normal mood, quarreling and trying to make a meal.

"Kudou! The salt goes in later!"

"baka. Of course not, it goes in now. I have seen Ran do it so many times."

"Hey who's cooking? First graders who cannot even reach the stove get out."

Conan shot Hattori his dagger eyes and dared him to say that again.

"So ya wanna hear it again? First-graders get out. First-graders get out." Hattori began in a sing-song voice.

Conan gave him a kick, the normal kick, and left the kitchen. He headed back to the library where Kid was which was underground. He retrieved a Sherlock Holmes book and began to read.

Kid sat on the sofa opposite Conan, watching him read the book so intently.

Suddenly a knock came and a young girl entered the room. Kid initial reaction was the hide before Conan addressed her.

"Oh. Haibara you're here."

The Haibara girl closed the door behind her and walked in, carrying a bunch of medical stuff.

"You should call the fire department on standby. Hattori is burning down the kitchen." She replied, in a way too mature voice for a kid.

She set open the equipments on the table between Kid and Conan. Kaitou watched in amazement as she unpacked everything neatly and cleanly.

"Kid-san, mind you lie down so I can redress your wounds?" She said or rather, commanded.

"Hai??" Kid looked towards Conan for an explanation.

"Just do as she says if you don't want to get hurt later on. She's the only one with enough medical skills to treat you unless you want that novice treatment from a certain baka in the house."

Kid lay down on the sofa as the girl began working on his bandages and applying medicine onto his wounds. She worked swiftly and neatly almost like a doctor. Not only her handiwork was amazing, what's more amazing was that she was only a elementary student.

After Haibara's treatment, Kid felt much better already. Haibara repacked her things and was about to leave when Hattori barged in with something that was burnt rather badly on the plate.

"Ohh. The gal is here too. Stay for dinner?"

Conan and Kid shuddered at the 'dinner' that was on the plate.

"Erm…" Kid began uncertainly. "What is that on the plate?"

"How rude! It is of course curryrice! Can't you see the sauce over the rice?" hattori said proudly.

"I'll pass" Haibara said as she headed to leave. "Oh and Kudou-kun, don't die eating that. I still need my test subject. I think I may be able to have a breakthrough on the antidote."

"And," Haibara suddenly began. Conan and Kid looked her, slightly startled. Her eyes narrowed into a small slit.

"You owe me big time Kudo-kun. First having me to persuade Ran to let you stay at Hattori's then asking me to get leave off school for you. AND… making me travel from Tokyo to Osaka for some thief. You owe me **big time**."

* * *

Author's note:

Teehee. Not much development yet. Just wanted to introduce Haibara and a bit of Kaitou's past and hints of Kaitou's future. xD

REVIEWS DEMANDED. haha.

Shiroi Mi

I finished the next chapt too! xD cause school had lesser homework. so all you reader out there, wish that school gives lesser homework so more updates for you! Min. 1 per week. MAX? infinite!

Next chapter: So you laugh. up by TOMORROW! if you don't review i'll.... not release it. Just kidding. ENjoy~ and drool in anticipation for tomorrow!

Chapter end 9:12 17 Jan  
Chapter edit 6:24 19 Jan


	6. So you laugh

Sorry this chapter will be short as Kaitou finally tells the whole truth though i think most of you out there has already get the gist of the story! xD  
ready or not, here is comes, chapter 6: so you laugh.

* * *

After somehow managing to survive Hattori's 'dinner', Conan and Kid were left alone as Hattori headed out after a very nosy girlfriend call.

"Erm. Tantei-kun, tell me where can I get a telephone?" Kaitou asked.

"I need to get a call to Jii that I am at least very much alive." He furthered explained after Conan's absence of response

Conan eyed him from the corner of his eyes, not the suspicious look but more of the analytical and surgical look. Kaitou couldn't help but squirm slightly under the intensity of conan's eyes.

"Alright."Conan finally replied and tossed him the ear-ring cellphone.

"Use this. This is untraceable"

Kaitou shot conan a grateful look and dialed to make his call. The good thing about having a detective friend is that he knew exactly what you need, you wouldn't need to beat around the bush. An extremely edgy and nervous ojii-san answered the call after a good number of rings.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Jii?" came kaitou's response.

"Ahh! Bochama! Where are you? Mistress is so worried! She thought you were… all the newspapers are saying that you were shot and most probably… died." A tattered and worried voice sounded through the earpiece.

"Nevermind that. I am still alive. Though I can't go back anytime soon."

As swish sound was heard as Conan flipped the pages of his book.

"Who's there?" the voice on the other end became tensed again.

"Oh. Someone who's taking care of me."

"Your secret?" came a hissing whisper.

"Don't worry about that. At least for now." Kaitou eyed the little detective seemingly engrossed in his book but he knew tantei-kun was listening to everything he was saying. Kaitou could imagine Jii perfectly, worried and twitching his fingers, which was his dead-hard habit, at the uncertain words of 'at least for now.' he could feel Jii's anxiety.

"…"

"Tell mom I'm fine. I am still in Osaka, I think since I have no idea myself where exactly I am. But I'll find a way to get back soon." the phone call ended.

Kaitou tossed back the cell to Conan who caught it without looking up from his book.

"So your accomplices doesn't know." Conan said off-handedly. His eyes still glued to the book.

A tense moment of silence ensued before Kaitou responded in a slightly awkward way.

"Yeah."

"Isn't it time you tell me everything?" Conan said as he put down the book and looked at Kaitou straight into the eye. His piercing eyes were x-raying Kaitou.

"Hey. That's not fair. You have too many secrets too. You tell me some of yours too." A childish pout played on Kaitou's lips

"Only if you tell me about those 'bad people'" Conan was dead serious, no tone of humour in his voice.

"No way other than that? Please? Pretty please?"

Conan shook his head firmly.

After a long moment of consideration possibility inner self battle, Kaitou finally began to speak, barely louder than a whisper.

"Sake"

Conan gave a wane smile. His thoughts has just been confirmed.

Kaitou's eyes darted around the room, painfully nerve-wrecking in wonder what would tantei-kun's response be. Scorn? Dismissive? Break off association with him? Yell and run off?

To Kaitou's great surprise, Conan laughed. A hearty and almost relieved kind of laugh. For once, Kaitou Kurobe, the Kaitou KID was at loss for words.

* * *

Haha. Did Conan's reaction get you by surprise? I just think Conan will react this way, i really don't know why myself? Oo. But hope you liked it and please please please review. and thanks thanks thanks to all those who had faithful followed the story and reviewing. i love you all!

Shiroi Mi.

Next chapter up by weekend: chapter 7: Alliances!

Until then... :)

Chapter end 9:26 19 Jan  
Chapter edit 9:53 20 Jan


	7. Alliances Forced

DISClAIMER: the usual

"HEIJJIII!" the piecing loud voice of Kazuha resounded in the house the minute Hattori had stepped into the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. He had after all ditched the infamous hot-tempered Kazuha on another date. Although neither party ever admits it so.

"Eek!" Hattori let out softly.

"Heiji! Where were you? Damn. We couldn't contact you for DAYS after that shooting. WHERE WERE YOU?" Kazuha stormed demandingly towards Heiji.

"Ehh… I was at… at…"

--

"I am at Hattori's, Ran-neechan!" Conan said sweetly and as innocently as he could muster.

Kaitou listened to his conversation with mild interest. The past 10 seconds had been the most bizarre he had ever gone through. After his very solemn confession, Conan had laughed! **LAUGHED! **Rather hysterically too, only to be interrupted by an very sudden phone call. Also, the unusual reaction from his favourite tantei-kun had sparked an electricity of desperate interest in Kaitou about his little tantei-kun's secrets.

"I'll be back tomorrow, by Sunday the latest…. Mn… okay,I promise….Haiiiii… Goodnight Ran-neechan." Conan finally put down the phone with a relieved sigh. Kaitou thought he saw tantei-kun roll his eyes ever so slightly

"So, care to tell me now? Why did you laugh? And your secrets." Although the tone is light, it masks a determined and solemn demand.

"okay. Okay. Don't nag. I have enough nagging from Ran." Conan complained slightly as he moved to sit opposite Kaitou again.

"So for starters, why don't you tell me what you know about me? The great magician under the moonlight, Kaitou Kuroba-san?" A little mild teasing sarcasm was thrown in with Conan's frustrated mood. Kaitou flinched slightly at the mention of his name. He realised and was remined over and over again that his peril was nowhere near over with just about the smartest kid in the world and an Osaka tantei, with police relationship, knowing his identity.

"alright then. From what I have gathered, your name is Edogawa Conan, whom is non-existent." Conan nodded.

"That's a good start, continue?" Conan prompted.

"Okay, this may be bizarre but this is the only logical reasoning left. You are Kudo Shinichi." Kaitou finished without flinching, his poker-face was back on after all having it knocked down twice a day was too harsh for even Kid to bear.

"Bingo. Then what else do you want to know?" Conan flashed Kaitou a teasing innocent glance.

"Well, EVERYTHING! Why did you disappear? Why are you leaving under an alias? Why are you a first-grader? Why do you and Kudo's prints match? Why are you lying about your name and background? Why do you look so similar to me? And finally, why did you laugh?"

"Let me just get some things straight. Yes, I am Kudo Shinich, 17 years old. Believe it or not, I am Edogawa Conan for now after a certain unfortunate chain of events. Anyway, simply put, the organisation, the same one with Sake in it, poisoned me with a prototype drug which shrunk me instead of killing me. So to take the organisation down, I am living under the alias Conan so as not to put the people around me in danger. I'm sure you understand me perfectly. About why we look the same, I don't know myself. And why I laughed? That was because I was relieved that you were not from black org."

"Black org? That's what you call them? Ever heard of the term syndicate?" Kaitou teased. Somehow despite how unbelievable the story seemed, it made sense.

"Whatever" Conan pouted.

"Why did you suspect me to be in the black org or syndicate?"

"there are many pointers of suspicion around your heists with sniper firings that often goes unnoticed, with suspicious people mixing in the crowd when the cameras panned," Conan ticked his fingers as he said each reason. "Then followed by weird movements of yours at certain points of things, also with traces of the to-be-stolen jewel searched more than once by different methods suggesting that two different people searched them. They lead to only two possibilities, one you are part of them two you are chased by them."

"So you were relieved that I am _chased_ by them?" Kaitou glared at tantei-kun, slightly pissed off with the tone that Conan had used.

"No. No. I don't mean it that way. It just means that I have finally found another member."

"Member?"

"in the past months, since I was shrunk. I have been gathering people who can help me in taking down this organisation, or syndicate if you prefer. There is a lot of requirements since I don't want to drag innocents down into … hell. First came Sherry, an ex-member of the organisation, also shrunken, now known as Haibara."

"oh! That girl. No wonder she had the same aura as you." Kaitou interrupted, remembering the girl that tended to his wounds. Subconsciously he massaged the bandage.

"the drug APTX 4689, which shrunk me, is created by her so she is trying to find an antidote to it. Besides her, there is Hakase, the inventor who invents my gadgets. Hattori whom you met, the Osaka detective."

"So I'm part of it now." Kaitou complained and gave a huge exaggerated comical sigh.

"There's no way out," Conan smirked. "kaito Kuroba - **kun"**

**Chapter end 10:00 pm 19 Jan**

**Chapter edit 7:43 pm 21 Jan**

Haha I'm in a bit of a rush. Oo sorry for the no-formatting. Haha love Conan being sinister.

See ya again on wed. LOVE YOU ALL!

PLEASE REVIEW.


	8. Kuroba niichan

Disclaimer: I am a nice nobody

* * *

The train droned on and on in the direction of Tokyo. Conan was exhausted. After a long confrontation with Kid, who wouldn't be? Especially it gets more troublesome when Kid is able to move. Things go missing, traps start appearing, pranks start crackling…

Conan watched idly as the scenery goes by. In about 1 more hour, he would be arriving at Tokyo with a very worried Ran waiting at the platform. Sighing, he wondered how long Ran would wait, for Shinichi he mean. He need to call back as Shinichi to cheer her up again. But calls were getting less effective, Ran needed to see the person to feel that person and to talk to that person face to face, something Conan would love to do but can't.

Since the departure of the train, in less than 30 minutes, Conan had finished the homework without using a quarter of his brain power. But nothing irked him more than the person sitting beside him, the rumored Kaito Kid who wasn't intending to let Conan have any peace of mind.

It had been disaster when he found out that a child's ticket cannot be purchased without an adult accompanying. It was irritating. Then this idiot, Kid, appeared, claiming with elaborate and convincing speech as his guardian who will 'be extremely willing' to accompany the boy to Tokyo. Great, just great! To be stuck on the train with a magician who have superb powers to make a person go mad.

"Conan-kun!" came the familiarly irritating voice of Shinchi who could have fooled everyone but Conan.

'What is it, Kuroba-niichan?" Conan asked, dangerously coated with honey, sweetly.

Yesterday the pact had formed between them. There was only 1 condition on which Conan had agreed to Kaitou's terms, that Conan would not reveal his identity, unless he could catch him fairly on a heist in exchange for being Conan and Hattori's disguise teacher, although primarily focusing on Conan. All 3 males feel that there is a need to learn to disguise and escape along with simple mind tricks in order for the operation "pandora's end" to happen.

The train hurled to a stop at Tokyo where Kuroba and him got off the train. "Conan-kun!" Ran waved as Conan stepped down. 'Ran-neechan!" Conan called back, running towards her as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"welcome back Conan-kun! How was your stay with Hattori?" Ran asked.

"Great! We went sightseeing together." Conan replied smoothly and sweetly.

_What a good liar._ Kuroba thought as he walked up to Ran. _He could actually be a good student of the arts of disguise._ Kaitou snickered softly

"Nice to meet you, Ran-san. I am kuroba Kaitou. Hattori's acquaintance." Kuroba bowed charmingly before Ran, leaving her flustered.

"ohh. Nice to meet you too, Kaito-san" Ran bowed politely back after forcing her flush down.

Conan shot daggers at Kaitou which read, "dare to make a move on Ran and I'll kill you, teacher or not."

Kaitou grinned at that, only until a certain girl whacked him hard on his head.

"AOKO! What are you doing?" Kaitou fired back.

"Baka Kaitou! You skipped school on Friday! And the next thing we knew, you had gone to OSAKA!!!" the girl, Aoko, raised her hand to whack kaitou again. Kaitou dodged nimbly and laughed running.

"Ohh. I didn't know you cared, Bakaoko!" Kaitou teased, returning into his prankster mode.

"KAITOUUUU!" the girl said threateningly. Then turning to Ran, she apologized quickly for kaitou's behaviour and dashed at the running boy, but not before Conan had a good look on her uniform which she was wearing. Ekoda High School.

_You aren't escaping from me anytime soon._ Conan smirked. Nothing missed the meitantei's eyes.

* * *

Chapter end 7:49 pm 21 Jan

Author's note:

This will be the last filler hahahaha. Next chapter would be Shounen tantei-dan's murder debut! Woo~ and someone unexpected is coming along.

EXCITED!


	9. Shounen Tantei Dan

Sorry mina-sannn. but finally i'm back. Sorry for the wait. I can't promise consistent uploads for a period now because the hellish school regime just resumed. a.g.a.i.n. how expected. Anyway here you go as compensation this will be A LOOOOOOOONG chap. word count about 3000 hope you enjoy it. xD i promise the finish the story so please be patient!

* * *

"CONAN-kun! CONAN KUNNN! Wake up. You'll be late for school!" Ran called from outside the door while knocking ferociously at the door. Conan rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn. The weekend had been hectic, chaotic and physically draining. If he was Shinichi, he was so going to skip class today but the fact remains that he wasn't Shinichi anymore.

"Ohayo Ran-neechan." he said groggily as he walked passed Ran to head to the shower. Ran was up and all ready for the day, in her apron, tasty smelling breakfast was on the stove already. Conan remembered that Ran was always up early around, to look after Occhan… and of course to stop by his mansion and make sure he went to school.

After brushing his teeth and freshening up, Conan walked to the dining table. As expected, Occhan was still sleeping. No big surprise since he was out mahjonging late last night into early morning. "DINGDONG." the doorbell rang as Conan was about to finish off his last bite of his breakfast.

"Coming!" Ran called as she opened the door. Ayumi, Genta, Misuhiko and Haibara stood outside the door. "OHAYO!" They greeted in unison the loudest being Genta. "ohayo!" Ran greeted back warmly. She was getting used to see the shounen tantei-dan group appearing at her doorstep to get Conan every morning.

Ayumi peered around Ran and exclaimed in delight upon seeing Conan. "Conan-kun!" She exclaimed.

"ohayo Ayumi." Conan greeted back, half stifled with a yawn. He isn't a morning guy and he will never be.

"Ja, bye bye Ran nee-chan!" Conan waved as he shot out of the house with his backpack.

"Be careful on your way back!" Ran called as Conan left to join the Shounen Tantei-dan.

"Conan kun?" Ayumi tugged gently at Conan's sleeves

Conan paused the process of wearing his shoes and turned to her. "What is it?"

"Tonight, do…do you want to go to the mall with me, I mean after school?" A pink slight flush flooded Ayumi's cheeks, but Conan was seemingly blind to it.

"Ok." He nodded casually. A wide grin played on Ayumi's lips. "great!"

Conan looked at the bouncing disappearing girl down the corridor with bewildered eyes.

Somehow it ended up as an outing with the shounen tantei-dan with the presence of self-invited Genta and Mitsuhiko. Then out of courtesy, Haibara was cordially invited by Ayumi.

The shounen tantei-dan chatted as they walked to the Haido Mall. They shopped for stationary for Ayumi and had to drag Conan out of the mystery department in a bookstore, went shopping for cds for Ai and other random objects that held Genta's and Mitsuhiko's interests.

However during the cheerful and seemingly innocent trip, Conan noticed something strange. There was an usual amount of police loitering around the corridors in plains clothes, whispering to their radios and hiding in the shadows.

"This is the fourth time already isn't it?" Takagi whispered to Megure-keibu's ear.

Megure nodded solemnly. It had been a most curious case for the Tokyo police force ever. 4 bombings that occurred but no injuries nor deaths. The bombs, despite being set at the most densely populated and most frequented places, there had been no injuries at all. The first was at a park where a circus was supposed to be performing, the second on a bus which was supposed to be driving during the peak hour, the third in a van that was supposed to go to the city hall but changed planes and now, a shop that was supposed to open today but was postponed to tomorrow. It had been most bizarre.

When the supposed victims were questioned, they replied with strange answers such as " a man called in to have an urgent meeting." "my bank manager called me to meet him." "My date and I were having dinner outside." etc. Random, supposedly normal reasons can be really abnormal when it happens always just before the explosion takes place. This kind of coincidence can't really be coincidences after all.

The bombings had been treated as some form of prank before letters of threat and challenge had been sent to the police declaring war on whoever/whatever that has been obstructing his plan. The perpetrator had thought that the police had been doing something fishy but the truth was, the police also had no idea who was behind it.

Conan was definitely suspicious now that the plain clothes policeman just whispered something about bombs and victims. He lagged back as he let the shounen-tantei dan walk in front of him, hoping to disappear as soon as he had the chance. The detective genes in him was already stirring with desperate thirst to know what had happened.

He quietly and slowed stepped away from Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ai, slipping into a secluded corner of the mall… "Edogawa-kun, may I ask where are you going?" Ai turned to look at Conan, the all-knowing egoistic smile of hers showed on her youthful face. At this, the whole shounen tantei-dan turned to face him.

"Conan!" Ayumi pouted as she 'stomped' over and grabbed Conan by his arm.

"You were going to slip out again" Genta accused. His plump hands crossly folded over his chest.

"by yourself again" Mitsuhiko added with his accusing eyes.

"Woah! I get it. I get it." Conan tried to calm the agitated crowd of kids. He gave a pleading sideway look at Ai who continued smiling back in a really _elegant _manner.

After cooling off the heated atmosphere, Conan explained.

"Don't you feel something is strange here?"

"What is?" Ayumi asked.

"The number of policemen!"

"Where? WHERE? Where?" Genta looked around him excited.

"Shh. Baka. Don't make such a fuss." Conan said.

"I don't see anybody in a police uniform." Mitsuhiko commented.

"Of course not. They are in plains clothing. See that man by the elevator, he had been standing there for a few minutes whispering into his radio. And that one," Conan pointed to another man standing outside a shop.

"oh. That man. I thought something was strange too." Haibara piped in. "He had been standing there for quite some time."

"But Conan, how did you know they are policemen? They look like normal people at first glance to me." Ayumi asked.

"That's because Takagi-keiji and megure-keibu are there." Conan pointed to the other side of the mall where two miniature looking people were standing near the railing.

"Woah! It's really them!" Genta called as he ran towards the two dark small figures.

"I wonder what happened."

Conan led the group of excited and whispering kids towards the two figures of Takagi and Megure-keibu in the shadows.

"KONNICHIWA!" they greeted loudly in unison, giving the two adults a fright.

"Ah! It's Conan kun tachi!" Takagi was the first recovered from the surprise chorus greeting. He bent down to face them. "Konnichiwa!" he greeted, smiling.

"Ahem!"

The shounen tantei dan and Takagi turned to look at Megure. Megure shot Takagi _the _look and Takagi smiled sheepishly and stood up. Megure just knew that Takagi was about to tell Conan the case again. He had grown a habit of doing that. Shifting his gaze from Takagi, he turned to look at the group of kids in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" Megure asked.

"Shopping!" Ayumi replied, holding up the bag of stationary she bought.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Mitsuhiko added, with enough accusing stress on the 'you'.

"ehh?... Ahh… Ahhh… we are…. We are…" Megure turned to Takagi for help.

"Shopping!" Takagi replied hastily, which was of course really unconvincing. The shounen tantei-dan frowned.

"Shopping with a group of plainclothes policemen?" Genta added bluntly.

The startled expressions of Megure and Takagi confirmed their suspicions.

"There is a case right? Something happened." Conan said firmly.

"That's right. Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!" The rest of the shounen tantei dan chorused with their usual demanding on-the-verge-of-throwing-tantrum looks in their eyes.

After a few moments of exasperation and indecision finally Takagi broke the tension.

"Alright. Alright. But it's a secret kay?" He squatted down and whispered to them. "Actually we had received a bomb threat in this area."

"EHHHH?" came the chorused response minus Conan and Haibara.

"Shhh! But the time of the bomb has already passed and nothing happened. It might have been a fluke or something but we're still staking out to be safe." Takagi finished.

"So it was a prank?" Haibara asked.

"Probably so. The paper was faxed in and wasn't very threatening anyway. It didn't have much substance in it." Takagi shrugged.

"Do you have a copy of that letter with you?" Conan asked suddenly.

"Ah. Yeah…." Takagi fished for the piece of paper in his pockets. "Ah. Found it!" He removed a crumpled piece of paper. Conan took it from Takagi and the shounen tantei dan crowded around it.

"2:40pm. Bomb at Haido Mall"

It was true that the message lacked impact. Conan glanced at his watch. It was already 4pm. It was strange that the policemen were still hanging around after almost 2 hours for a prank letter. In the first case, it was fairly common for prank bomb threats to be sent to the police but it was stranger still that the first division was mobilized so quickly for this kind of lousy prank letter. There is something about this case that Takagi had not told them… Conan's eyes wandered back to the whispering duo. There is definitely something more…

But luck was with him as the shounen tantei dan was kind of satisfied with this result and headed off to leave. "byebye! Takagi-san and Megure keibu!" Ayumi called as she led the group away from them. As the group arrived at the main entrance again, they went about their separate ways as it rather late already.

Conan stood at the front of the mall watching Genta and Mitsuhiko heading their own separate ways while Ayumi and Haibara went together in an opposite direction. Conan headed off by himself in a different direction. He was deep in thought.

_There is definitely something more than what Takagi-keiji told us…. Something more serious… so serious that the first division would be made of mobilize so quickly. Serial murder? Can't be… the area was not sealed off… and if there was a murder the mass media would be all over it quickly_. Conan thought back to the recent news, nothing out of ordinary was noted. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was fishy. He kicked the random can that was unfortunately to be lying around in his path. The can flew straight front, hitting a person who was walking in front.

"Oh no…" Conan panicked. He wasn't apt at these kinds of situation. He couldn't smooth talk like KID. Damn his name for popping up in his head so randomly.

The person, who was wearing a thick coat complete with mufflers and a hat, halted in his steps.

"urm… gomennasai!" conan apologized weakly. The man looked rather stern from behind. His broad back was two times the size of Conan himself. Slowly and carefully, the men turned his head over his left shoulder, revealing a half covered face under his dark hat. The only features of his head visible is his chin which was unshaved and messy. Conan guessed the man to be about 30 years of age? Or maybe 40? But there was a distinct quality about him that made Conan second guess himself, his instinct seemed to tell him he was much younger around 20 perhaps.

"Hontoni gomen!" Conan apologized again.

The man did not say anything. He looked away from Conan and continued walking in his slow pace. As Conan had been too deep in thought previously to notice him, his detective instinct was aroused once again. This time owing to his mysterious man in front of him. His two little keen eyes traced every movement of the male in front of him. Now that he thought about it, the man was suspicious, distinctively out of place from the rest. For goodness sake, it was just late into the afternoon and it was spring, true that the nights may been cold but it wasn't cold now, not even close to chill, yet this mysterious man in front of him was wearing long sleeves, coat, black long pants with a hate that covered more than half his face.

As Conan watched the man disappear from his sight, he had a puzzled expression on his face. Something about the man striked him but he could not pinpoint the source of that … feeling. But he let that go. For one, the man didn't seemed to be a murderer anyway, and for now, Conan had more important things to figure out, such as what was Megure and Takagi keeping from him…

For moments like this, Conan would wish, more than anything else, to be back as Shinichi, then he wouldn't be having this headache on how to get the information, being Shinichi would be equal to simply walking there and asking them upfront. The best part being, getting what you want without breaking a sweat. Now that privilege was non-existent, he as Conan had to sweat and think on how to get the most basic things of all deductions, the information.

Conan sighed. He was really out of ideas. He had thought that Takagi would have told them, after all they (the shounen tantei-dan) especially himself had been proved themselves to be very apt at spotting 'out of place' things with his infamous "ah-le-le…". But Takagi's hesitation and refusal to tell them just spiked Conan's interests more, for it must be something much more serious.

Plan B was to fake Occhan's voice and call the police headquarters but that was out. Simply because no news were made about this event. It would obviously be weird for Mouri Kogoro to simply _know_ something was happening and _ask_ about it when it _wasn't even announced_. Conan didn't need more suspicious eyes turning in his direction anymore. Moreover, Mouri Kogoro was not even there when the shounen tantei-dan talked to the police officers. And even if he somehow did managed to get Kogoro into the picture, there is a 99% chance that he would be have been fully satisfied by the lame reason Takagi gave to the shounen tantei-dan a while back.

Conan needed a Plan C. As he turned the last corner of the streets of Beika city to the Mouri Tantei office, partially because he was heading home and partially due to pure habit, he was surprised to see the familiar silhouette of the mysteriously clothed man. Upon instinct, he darted behind the wall that he just passed and became out of sight to the man. Cautiously, he peered one of his eyes over the corner. The man paused outside the tantei-office.

A client? It seemed unlikely to Conan but it was not impossible. The man turned to look at the second floor window. Conan traced his line of sight and saw the back of Kogoro-ojiisan, sitting in his usual chair, one hand propped up at his chin, he body slanting sideways. Conan reverted his eyes back to the mysterious man at the bottom of the stairs that led to the agency. He was waiting for some tell-tale signs to confirm if the man was a client or not.

A client looking for a private detective always had some tell-tale signs. It was human nature. And since Mouri tantei agency and the name Sleeping Kogoro became more famous, they had been meeting strangely clients and more important requests then looking for cats. Which was now practically a thing of the past. But whatever the purpose, there are several tell-tale signs of a client. Firstly, they will be nervous. All one needs is a trained eye that knew where to look, one could easily tell nervousness from stress, from anger, from any other emotion. Common signs of nervousness include basic things such as biting on the lips, a slight flush on the face due to the increase in heart beat and perhaps a little adrenaline, fidgeting especially with hands and perhaps throw in a couple of unnatural reactions.

But.

The man at the foot of the mouri tantei agency displayed no such signs. He was calm, completely. To the extent that it could be perhaps even called too calm. The state that you achieve on if you are daydreaming peacefully about happy things, reminiscing about some old buddy days, or you are a professional. Professional can include positive things such as you are a surgeon but it is also linked with other ideas such as assassins, trained ones that could kill in cold blood. Conan shuddered as he involuntarily thought of Gin.

Pushing Gin hastily out of his mind, Conan continued his expert evaluation of this person. Again, a strange feeling bugged him like…. He knew him. As if they had met before. Somewhere…. Sometime…. But it wasn't like Conan to forget where.

* * *

Finally the shounen tantei dan gets some air time. xD this will be a long story so seat tight! xD  
i bet some of you can guess who it is but shush shush kay? xD it will be a big showdown when everyone is gathered. :):):):) look forward to that!


	10. The mysterious case of the bombs

Hello Shiroi Mi is back! Alive and kicking. Sorry for the long break before. But now I'm on about this story again. xD anyway this chapter is rather informative I know, but bear with this because this is the necessary information needed to be revealed for the case. See ya soon!

* * *

"This is bizarre." A high-pitched rather familiar female voice sounded over Conan's receiver. At present, Conan is crouched under a random desk at the police headquarter, pressing the earphones into his left ear, struggling to make out the hazy and unclear words.

"I completely agree. What's your opinion on this, Satou-san?" Megure's deep voice rattled through the receiver.

"I would think that this case must be the doing of someone or some group with large influence over the country. Predicting and stopping a planned crime is even harder than solving a done crime." Satou answered.

"But we think it just one person or if not, a few persons… We had the profilers analysis the case. The bomber was easy to read, just another screwed guy out there trying to do the wrong things. Possibly with grudge to the police, especially the Beika area since all the targets were Beika areas."

"Obviously someone is trying to stop the bombs or at least preventing the bomb from exploding in places where it can harm people." Feet shuffled.

"Based on this, the first bomb was planted under the circus stage. We received a tip off, possibly from the bomber himself, 10 mins before the set time for explosion. This was sent to the second division. Kuusake-kun from the second division will elaborate on that."

"yes thank you Shiratori-san. We received the tip off by fax coming in exactly at 3.56 pm. The paper, which I have a photocopy here reads, 'The circus is coming to town, with a blast. Fireworks of orange and gold, will drop the curtain to the stage. At 4.16, when the second hand strikes twelve, come to Beika Greens and watch the finale grand.' we concluded that this threat was real because of the wordings and the careful planning of this fax. We mobilized immediately. But it was impossible to get to Beika Greens in 10 mins from here. The bomber clearly planned it in such as way that we could 'see' the circus but cannot 'reach' there in time. About 2 crossroads away, we watched the bomb go off, plastic explosive, orange flame in the sky. When we reached the scene, we found out that the show scheduled for that time was cancelled."

"Why was it cancelled so suddenly? I remember the news reporting it having the last finale show at that time."

"yes that's true. We interviewed the circus owner. He told us a rather curious story. His son was kidnapped."

A collective intake of surprised breaths.

"It's true. The kidnapped demanded that the circus cancel its finale show."

"so it's a bad that turned out good."

"seems so at first glance. A kidnapper saved about a thousand people just accident. If it was an accident."

_If it was an accident?_ Conan mused over this sentence. It was true that it was a rather lucky break but why did the officer say that puzzled him. Why were the officers so set that it was not a

'lucky break'.

"The son was returned, safe and sound. No demand for ransom or anything. Just simply cancel the show. We never really investigated deeply into the case because the owner was more thankful to the kidnapper than anything else and he didn't want to press the case."

Conan smiled musingly to himself. Of course the owner would be thankful. The kidnapper just saved him a lot of trouble and a lot of bloodshed perhaps even the owner's own life. Moreover, his son was returned safe.

"That's the first case." Shiratori's voice returned. "the second case, is the bus ran by the Meiko bus company. The bus travels within Beika daily starting from 7am to 11pm. However the bus's tires had been slashed. So the bus was left at the coach park instead for repairing the next day when it blew up. The time it blew up was 7.00pm. According to the bus route and timetable, the bus would be passing by Beika's highly visited shopping district at that time as it does everyday except for that day. It wasn't the first time bus's tires were slashed and the company thought it was just a prank so they didn't report it."

_Now that is interesting_. Conan thought as he processed the new information. Lucky breaks don't happen that often do they? Especially not so for the little murder-magnet detective.

"the third case. The van case was done exactly as the bus case which roused suspicions. While we were debating whether these cases were related, the letters of threats from the bomber arrived. Which is why we passed this case on to the first division. This could be the case of the mass-murderer on the loose. A crazy and paranoid one at that, to issue direct challenge to the police." Kuusake-san concluded.

"Yes. Today we got our fourth case." Megure's voice returned again. "The bomb had just been found, exploded in a storeroom at the jetty where they store goods. The bomb exploded from a goods box in storeroom 56. The box was designated to Miluva's cosmetics opening today at the popular Beika mall. According to the store manager, that box of goods were to be delivered today when the store's grand opening. In the box were fresh flowers and small sample cosmetics which were to be given to the public today. However, since they had postponed the opening of the shop to tomorrow, they called off the delivery so the box was undelivered when it exploded."

'So, we have a frantic bomber. An unknown entity prevented the bombs from exploding in packed places. It could be just the work of 1 person. But how does that person know where the bombs are? And why didn't that person just come to the police?" satou questioned.

Mumblings to be heard but no one knew the answer.

* * *

End of chapter 10. Look for to chapter 11 where Conan shall unravel the mystery but not before a Kid appearance and a meeting with Hakuba. xD everything will come together slowly, drawn by the invisible hands of fate.

Shiroi Mi~


	11. A day with Kuroba: Request from Conan

Teehee. Apologize for long wait. But i'm officially back after some gruesome exams. yes! I LOVE DC MOVIE 14 IS COMING OUT SOON IN SUBS. cant wait. okay here's the long due chapter. Chapter 11: A day with Kuroba and a request from Tantei-kun

* * *

"kaitou! What were you doing on Friday? You didn't even come to school AND! You just disappeared into Osaka!" Aoko vented, slamming her palms onto Kuroba's table.

BAM

"Calm down Aoko. It was nothing. I just went there cos…" before Kaitou could finish,

"the kid heist." a certain blonde detective finished, putting the paper he was holding down gently on the table. His piercing eyes staring right at Kuroba.

Kuroba turned to face him. "Yes oh mister-great-and-mighty-Hakuba-tantei? Is there anything you wanna to say?"

"the only reason for you to disappear to Osaka is the Kid heist." Hakuba pointed to the paper he had put on the table. The headlines read, "KID SHOT AT HEIST. DEAD OR ALIVE?"

"This is the reason right?" Hakuba said. "you were at the heist." He finished, hinting at Kuroba. "or rather you were _in_ the heist."

"Seriously? You were there? Was kid really shot?" suddenly the crowd of female classmates flooded Kaitou, bombarding him with questions.

Kaitou shot Hakuba a death stare.

"I went to the heist yeah. But I didn't see anything. There were too many people. But his magic is as magnificent as ever! The indoor fireworks! I wonder how he did that. That was really a sight to behold. Colourful firecrackers into the ceiling! It was amazing!" Kaitou said in admiration for Kid, or rather his alter ego. It was like boasting of himself from a third person perspective. And it felt good.

"Really? That's so nice. What did he do? The media is all over the shooting and didn't even give enough coverage about the heist!" some girls pressed, leaning in enthusiastically on Kuroba's table.

"Do you think he's really dead?" a voice piped up amongst the questions of enquiry for details.

"I don't believe so. In the first place, there is no evidence of a shooting happening. Someone just started screaming about shooting and everyone just panicked. Moreover…"

"It doesn't matter!" Aoko yelled furiously. "He isn't dead!"

A dumbfounded group of classmates stared at the ever-hate-Kid Aoko. Since when did Aoko not want the Kid dead?

"My dad hasn't caught him yet so he can't die." she explained.

The atmosphere suddenly chilled. -.-"'

.

..

...

….

…..

"Eh.. Leaving that aside. I shall continue my description on what happened. It was wonderful and there was….. (fades)

~ At the Beika Police Headquarters

Conan had his deep in thought look as he left the headquarters after his little eavesdropping. No, to be more precise it was 'gathering data', eavesdropping made it sound so criminal.

He didn't have a choice anyway. Not like the police would want to leak this case. It would have a hazardous impact if the bomber found that the person(s) who carried out his anti-bombing plan was not the police. And it wouldn't leave the good impact to the media anyway.

For now, Conan noted down the details onto his memory, filing them away. He had a more important mission at hand. He needed to find Kuroba.

~Ekoda High School

Conan reached Ekoda High School half an hour before the end of lessons. He had, using his kiddish voice to ask the security guard at the post for the end of school time using the excuse of picking up his _oniiiii-chann_, flashing his cheezy grin. The security had given the answer to him off course, who could deny what Conan asks for when he is in that i-am-so-young-and-smart-and-honest mode. So there he was, leaning casually against the school gate, waiting for a certain someone to come into view.

Precisely 43 minutes later, a tall slender male came into view, strikingly familiar to a certain someone he knew, himself.

Kuroba spotted Conan at the gate 5 minutes before he reached the gate. He was giving him his all-knowing smile which irked him. He just had a bad feeling that this little boy at the doorway or rather his not-exactly-so-small arch nemesis was not just here to play.

"Yo Conan-kun." Kuroba was the first to greet him as he walked past the school gate, stopping in front of the chibi tantei. "Konnichiwa Kuroba-san." Conan smiled sweetly which made Kuroba twitch. "Awww. Isn't this the boy at the station the other day with the girl you were flirting with?" Aoko said, with a edge to her voice giving Kuroba her razor-suspicious eyes. "I wasn't." Kuroba defended, raising both palms in front of him like a defense. Aoko wanted to wack Kuroba but at the moment she was preoccupied with the little boy in front of him. "Ne. what's your name, little boy?" She asked bending down.

"Conan. Edogawa Conan, onee-san." Conan answered politely.

"He's sooo cute!" Aoko said, rushing into a bear hug, lifting poor Conan-kun off his feet. Conan went into a state of shock.

"Oh, so sorry about that." Aoko smiled sheepishly as she set him down. "I'm Aoko. His guy's classmate." she said, giving the _look_ to Kuroba. Kuroba returned it with his what-did-I-do-wrong-again face.

"What are you here for?" She asked, turning her focus back to Conan.

"To see Kuroba-san!" Conan replied, still smiling.

"Oh I see. Ja, both of you have fun." She said, then she added in a whisper to Conan. 'but be careful not to grow up like him ok?" Conan nodded. "Hai, Aoko-neesan." Aoko smiled and left with something like 'what a good boy' hanging on her lips.

Kuroba and Conan watched her go.

"Eh. So Conan-kun is here to see him. I am soo touched." Kuroba said.

"Baro. Like anyone is here to see you." Conan replied in his normal, more mature voice. There was no need to keep up pretenses with this guy anyway. He turned to walk. Kuroba followed.

"What did she say just now to your ear?" Kuroba asked.

"not to grow up like you." Conan replied. "I won't." He smirked.

'This chibiiiii." Kuroba thought. He made sure to note down the next time during a heist he is soooo going to pay Kudo back.

'Anyway I have favour to ask to the great magician Kid." Conan said softly, only loud enough for kuroba to hear.

'What's that? Meitantei-san." Kuroba replied with the same tone.

"you can hack into the public surveillance camera right?"

"Eh?... Yeah, more or less." Kuroba was shocked at the direction of this conversation.

"ja even the Beika cameras?"

"Sure if there is a need to. Why?"

"There a case I need help to solve. The police won't give the info and there's also this other thing…." Conan said as he recalled the strange man outside the mouri-tantei agency. He just have this bad feeling about that guy in black.

"Case? And why am I obliged to help my arch nemesis.?"

Conan smirked. "cause I know your name."

Kuroba returned with his own version of the same smirk. "And I also know yours."

"but you won't tell. Cause of _them_." Conan shrugged. "you can't. Your nobody gets hurts policy won't allow for that."

'che. You're no fun tantei-kun."

'Whatever. So can you do it or not?"

"yeah I can. It won't take more than a jiffy but you can must come to my house to do it. I don't want leaks and traces left behind. I don't trust any other computer except mine."

"anything. Aren't we like going there now?" Conan said as he pointed to the Kuroba house nearing them.

~ somewhere. Someplace.

'damn those police. How on earth did they know what I am doing? How on earth were they able to stop me not once, not twice but FOUR TIMES! It didn't make sense. Did they found out I am already? Then why were there no attempts to apprehend me? It didn't make sense.

But whatever, the next target is set and the plan is drawn up. If they can, they can try to stop this all they want. But this time. I will succeed and take my revenge

Stupid police. If they were so smart then how can they not solve Mi-chan's murder? If they were so smart, then why did they let that son of a ********* get away with his damn crime.

_"I'm so sorry Fukuba-san. The case about your murder daughter Mi Fukuba was dropped due to the lack of evidence. I'm really sorry about it Fukuba-san. We did all we could. But the guy…_

~ Kuroba's house

"Sorry for intruding." Conan said as he entered the house of the great magician under the moonlight. It was relatively normal on the surface, more normal then he had expected anyway. He had thought that traps were would wound everywhere. Or perhaps he had another place for this alter ego.

'Ala! Kaitou, who's this boy-ya?" A woman relatively young around mid-30s stepped into view from the presumably kitchen.

"Oh. Conan from Beika." Kuroba answered as he took off his shoes.

"Ala. From so far away? Alone. Such a dangerous thing for such a young boy to do." Then she turned to Conan and smiled.

"Conan-kun, would you like cookies? I just baked some. Oh, by the way I'm Kaitou's mother." She smiled.

"Thanks but no thanks, obaa-san. I just ate before coming here." Conan smiled as he followed after Kuroba up the stairs.

"Your mom is nice." Conan commented as he entered Kaitou's room, messy as he expected.

"Ma… she's nice when she's nice. She can be a beast if she feels like it." Kuroba shrugged.

Conan wandered around his room as Kuroba turned on the computer, dump his briefcase and school stuff on the floor.

"ne have I been here before?" Conan suddenly asked.

Kuroba swiveled the chair to look at him, puzzled. "I don't think so. Why?"

"I don't know." Conan said, as he touched the portrait of the magician Tochi Kuroba. "I somehow feel… like this place is familiar."

Suddenly the big portrait of Tochi Kuroba turned and swiveled open. Conan jumped back in shock.

The opened door of the portrait revealed a room filled with Kid stuff and another huge picture of Tochi Kuroba but now in Kid uniform.

"how… how did you do that?" Kuroba asked, shocked beyond words. Conan turned to face him, a slightly puzzled and bemused look on his face.

'how did I do what?"

"open that door. I thought it had fingerprint sensor to open only to me."

"Really? I don't know. I just touched the portrait."

"but mom did say that my father specially installed fingerprint reading device such as it can only be opened by me and Jii. How did you…..?"

"beats me. " Conan shrugged. "it just opened. Still this room is cool. I didn't really know that you had so many Kid uniforms." He said as he walked through the portrait gingerly.

The room was small but not too small. It had a row of white, washed and pressed Kid uniform. Boxes of possibly magic tools and other uniforms that Kid had used. Multiple hand gilders lay folded in a corner. A huge clean table with books, possibly all the magic tricks that Kid had ever used to get his hands on a jewel.

Kaitou followed Conan through the portrait. He let Conan explore the room while he examined the fingerprint door opening device. Everything was function properly. But why did it open to tantei-kun?

Suddenly there were footsteps up the stairs. Kuroba and Conan ducked out the hidden room. Kuroba shut the door. The bedroom door opened to show Kuroba's mom with a tray of cookies.

"Since it's done. I thought I would bring it up for both of you." She smiled.

"arh… sure… Leave it on the table." Kaitou said.

Kaitou's mom smiled and did as told. "How long will you be here for? It's already 4pm. You need to be back tomorrow for school right?" She asked Conan. "

Conan nodded. "Yeah. It's ok. I can stay until 6pm. Someone will pick up if I'm late and I called home already to say I'm visiting." He smiled.

"Oh. Then it's ok. Have fun boys." She said as she walked down the stairs.

"About the video thing, which area do you want?" Kuroba asked.

"Firstly, hmmm." Conan recalled the conversation he had heard at the headquarters. "Beika green. 17 August to 20 August. Then, Meiko bus company. 29 August to 31 August. Then lastly, 8 September to 12 September the storerooms at the jetty there…. If I remember correctly its…. Storeroom 56. Oh add Mouri tantei agency 19 September. "

Kuroba nodded as he began to type on his computer.

* * *

that's all for this chapter. :)  
Hmm i wonder why the Kuroba tochi picture opened to Tantei-kun... xP

hope Conan-kun will get a lead on the curious bombing case. xD

Shiroi Mi~


	12. A lead :::::::::::::: somewhat

Yoho! as promised. xD

* * *

Conan fingered with the computer watching the tapes that Kuroba had given him. For just 4 places, he had more than 5 tapes, to be exact there were 8 tapes. Well, Kuroba was through, he got all the tapes from multiple cameras.

He had been at it for more than 3 hours already, wasting his Sunday away. He had hardly got a lead. For one, the cameras were of low quality, soundless tracks. He could read lips sure, but not when the view was from the back. It irritated him at just how unstrategic the stupid cameras were located. Well, it was true that these cameras were not meant for the purpose Conan was using it now, but still… he had hoped.

The paper beside the computer were filled with writings. Conan had took them while he watched. He stifled a yawn, and resumed staring at the computer screen playing the videos. He was only on his 3 tape. There were still 5 more tapes to go.

~ At the Mouri tantei agency

"Ne Otou-san, where is Conan-kun?" Ran asked. The 'mei'tantei was leaning carelessly on this table, beer cans littering the floor a crimson flush on his drunken face. "Youko-chan. Youko-can" He muttered in a sing-song voice.

Ran flared, slamming her palms on the table. "OTOU-SAN!" she yelled. The drunken tantei jumped in fright. "what is it?" he asked unhappily. "Hurry up I'm missing Youko-chan's drama!"

"Where. Is. Conan-kun.?" Ran said angrily. "Ahh. You mean that kid? Isn't he at Hakase's or something?" Mouri answered unhappily, waving his arms like it didn't matter at all to him.

~ Hakase's basement

Conan stretched lazily. He was sore from sitting in front of the computer for 5 hours. He had at last finished watching the videos.

"Anything out of place? Meitantei?' came a high-pitched mature voice from behind. Conan sulked. Why does Haibara always seem to be able to get on his nerves?

"Nothing definite as of yet." He replied.

"Oh I see." a pause. "are you done with the computer? I kind of need it for my research." She replied.

Conan turned to face her. The brown haired elementary school girl was standing behind me at the door to the basement. Her hands were folded in an impatient stance.

"Argh. I got it. I got it." he said. Then turning back to pick up the paper with his scribbles, he muttered something that sounded like "prissy and sucked-up…" which earned him a devil-stare from the little chibi-sized scientist.

After finding a chance to quickly duck out of the basement, away from the little oni (devil), Conan sat on the sofa and unfolded the piece of scribbles that he had written while he was watching the videos.

The cameras were too unstrategic. Only one of the tapes had the entrance to the place filmed and that was only for the storehouse bomb case. The rest were tapes from surveillance cameras facing either the back door, the road, the back yard or some other direction that couldn't provide any concrete evidence.

The one at the storehouse despite its strategic location proved useless. There were too many people in and out of the place, transporters, goods loader etc etc to the point that it was impossible for Conan to tell who put the bomb.

Conan sighed. The case was leading nowhere. Suddenly a BOMBZ came from the direction of the Hakase's experiment room. Conan dropped the paper with his scribbles in a startle. He jumped off the sofa he was slouching on and headed towards the explosion.

"Oi Hakase? You okay?" He called out into the smoky room. He saw Hakase sitting on the floor, covered in dust and coughing with one of his experiments gone wrong. Just as he had deduced.

"I'm fine Shinichi." Hakase replied, coughing and sneezing.

"Mou. Be careful." He said, giving up on the hopeless inventor. Despite his detached unemotional response, conan still headed in to help Hakase clear up. The two of them swept up the dust and cleared the debris from the crash.

As they were putting the last pieces of debris away, Hakase asked, "Where's Haibara?"

"Probably downstairs engrossed in her research. I doubt she can hear anything down there." Conan replied shrugging. He could care less about the evil-eyed yawny girl.

After clearing up everything, Conan returned to the living room to claim the piece of scribble paper he left behind and head back to Ran's place. As he rounded the bend to the sofa, he saw the evil-eyed girl mulling over his piece of paper.

"You've got some interesting things." She said without turning around. Conan walked up behind her. "Yeah. Interesting. Except that it doesn't tell me the culprit is or who the mysterious person is." Conan sighed.

"Hmm? Though I think I found some link." Haibara replied teasingly.

"Honto?" Conan asked in a surprised tone.

"Ma. For every place, there is always…(long pause)…. a fat guy."

...

...

...

...

...

...

..

.

"eh?"

* * *

haha. hope it was crackish. next chap will be more serious. xD  
HEY! the fat guy isn't a lie kay? HAHA (This crackish thing was unexpected and unintentional. Oh Well~)

SHIROI MI!


	13. Error

etto. hello to those who are tracking this story! my onenote* (the software i use to write my stories and where all my stories are stored) is screwing with me. i can't open my story files. X( and thus will be unable to post the next installment to the story. i wrote it already but i can't open it. and i forgot where i ended so i can't even continue from there. once my onenote problem is solved hopefully within this week (cross fingers and hope) i will post 2 installments as an apology! o.o

please continue to support my stories! thank you lots

Shiroi Mi~


	14. The last bomb

URG. the one note is still giving me problems T.T but i managed to extract chapt 13 before it crashed again. =.= i am sooo not gonna use one note anymore. any one has a good recommendation to write stories software similar to one note? i liked one note cause it helps me keep my stories in tabs just like a book with chapters. haiz. anyway sorry that there will be no double installment since one note is still screwing with me. T_T but i hope you'll like this installment. xD

* * *

Sunday passed and Conan made no improvement of the case other than the so called clue from Haibara about fat guys. Well sure he had seen lots of fat guys in the 5 hours of video watching, but 'fat' is a subjective kind of description. It didn't proved anything.

Conan sulked. He was on this way after school, not that he listened to anything in class.

"Conan~-kun!" ayumi called.

Conan turned back to face her. "what's up Ayumi-chan?"

"Mitsuhiko got something cool. Come and see." she said as she ran towards the crowd of students.

Conan walked over. Not that he was interested, but he's got nothing to do anyway. As he approached, he could hear Mitsuhiko's voice.

"There. If u do this," he pressed a few buttons. "and this" he twisted some knobs. "you can use this to spy on your neighbour." he grinned.

"Woah~" a unison sound of amazement from the crowd. Conan joined the crowd. He peered in to see what Mitsuhiko was holding. It was your average child-sized toy spy camera.

It was neat. Conan agree to that. A rather small version of a normal camera, otherwise known as pinhole cameras. It was more or less a toy. It's just like a spy telescope that transfers the images from its lens to it's screen which is handheld. It was wireless but ran on batteries.

'woah. This is cool." genta said, his low loud booming voice easily audible over the rest of the class's whispers.

"So I can put this round round thing (lens) in someone's house then see what's happening from the screen?" He said, clearly attracted the spy camera.

"yeah sure. You wanna try?" Mitsuhiko said. He took the camera from Genta and pressed the 'on' button. The screen brightened. Then Mitsuhiko directed the lens to the sakura tree in the school yard. The tree was clearly reflected onto the screen, slightly smaller in proportion but identifiable. The colours were screwed up. The screen had limited colour resolution but it was workable and the crowd was amazed.

"Hey! Let's put this up on Kobayashi-sensei's table then we can sneak peak at what she is doing!" Genta suggested excitedly.

"that's a breach of privacy you know." Conan replied apathetically.

"Che. You're no fun, Conan." Genta replied.

Conan raised an eyebrow in amusement. He had been hearing that phrase a lot recently, from a certain white-cladded phantom thief especially.

"Ne Ayumi-chan, do you want to have this for one day?" mitsuhiko asked, clearing hoping to impress Ayumi.

"Honto? I can have it for one day?" Ayumi asked, hands clasping, eyes shining in excitement. Of course to that, Mitsuhiko couldn't and wouldn't refuse.

"Sure." He replied coolly, earning himself a smile from Ayumi causing him to blush slightly.

_Kids nowadays_. Conan shook his head.

The affair of the spy camera was over in 5 mins after that.

"Conan-kun, are you going home now?" Ayumi asked.

"Eh? No. Why?" Conan asked back, surprised. Ayumi glanced away shyly and didn't answer. Conan shrugged it off. He wanted to have some time alone, kicking his soccer ball so that he could think and piece of the new case together.

~ Somewhere, someplace

Fukuba-san (bomber) was heading to his new target. He hadn't send the fax to the police yet. He knew once he sent, the police would be milling about his target. Sure the police stopped him 3-4 times before but who cares? He wasn't a man who thought deeply into things. So what if they had stopped him 3,4 times, they won't stop him this time cause this time he wasn't going to fax a clue (like the last times he did it), he was going to fax a challenge. A blank piece of paper with his signature like those he had sent before and simply the time and date of the bomb.

He laughed to himself under his cap. He could imagine the police going crazy as they watching helplessly as his date and time of choice approached. He could imagine the havoc the whole department would be in. He could just imagine the police being publicly shamed when word of this gets out. You can't hide a bombing event forever. The panic, the despair, the helplessness. He savored it. The ecstasy of finally finally achieving your revenge.

It felt GOOD!

~ Beika Greens

Conan kicked his ball, trying to think. He knew the case by heart. The places of bombing, a circus, two transport companies, a cosmetics shop. They didn't have much link, only that they were all in beika district

He had looked up the founders, the workers, the employers and history of all these places and had come up with nothing.

The tapes he had gotten from Kuroba were as good as useless. He gave a half-amused chuckle at Haibara's comment. A fat guy.

The conversation with the police showed nothing.

The dates of the crimes were not prominently related in any way. There was no regular cycle.

21 Aug, 28 Aug, 29 Aug, 4 Sept

The strange entity stopping the bomb. Ah! That puzzled him most. If he was someone who knew who the criminal is, he would have told the police right away. Who wouldn't? but that person/group of persons didn't. Why? It didn't make any sense to Conan.

Well, there were reasons why someone would _not_want to go the police.

They had something to hide. Like a criminal past or something….

The person stopping the bombing was actually someone from the same group as the people bombing, backstabbing in other words.

But if that were the case, even if the person don't go to the police he could have given an anonymous tip off. That happens a lot. So why hadn't he/they?

The last big puzzle to the case was how were they/he stopping the bombing? If they/he had personally kidnapped the boy (circus), slashed the tires (transport companies), called the cosmetics shop to delay the opening, he must be one hell of the smart guy, or group for the matter. He is really smart. He could not only first, find the person, second shadow the person and know his plans, third prevent those plans without ever revealing himself.

~ Yonyi 6th hospital

The hospital was busy as usual in the late afternoon time. It was the popular visiting hours of the day. There were patients around the garden outside the main hospital block, families sitting around and chatting, doctors and nurses milling about. A not tall not short male, slightly bulky with a beige overcoat stepped into the hospital. He had a cap on his head. His face covered mostly by his hat.

He walked purposefully towards the elevator. He didn't wear gloves. He wouldn't need them. The number of people who were going to press on that button after him would clearly eliminate his prints. Nothing to worry about.

He walked into the lift as an elderly grandma surrounded by her grandchilden, presumably, was wheeled out of the lift by a nurse who smiled at him. He was the sole occupier in the lift. Raising his right hand, he pressed the button for the 8th floor. The lift doors closed obediently and the mechanism of the lift whirled, straining as the box headed upwards.

* * *

Next chapter we'll finally solve the case!

sorry if this chap seemed dry but its important cause it gives u all the facts about the case and gives u hints to the solution (not much tho) and tells u Conan's though process. anywa i'll post the next installment when my one note recovers T_T hopefully soon. i wrote about half already so seat tight and wait! xD

Shiroi Mi


	15. Yonyi 6th hospital

Hello mina-sannnnn! i am back! yes one note is working for me now. THANK YOU for all your replies, favs, story alerts. You guys make my day! xD i finished the entire case already! xD up to chapter 17. but i will only be releasing it 1 chapter per week xD so wait for it. :) oh since i'll be overseas next week, this week we'll have double installment! xP as promised. the second installment for this week will come in 2 days! PROMISE! not tricks. xD

i don't own the characters. nor DC. and now i shall shut up and let you guy enjoy.

* * *

~ Conan's room

It was late evening or some would have already called it night. Conan frowned and brooded over the piece of paper that held the notes of the latest case. Something just didn't sit right when him. The dates, he felt they were linked. Somehow.

The interval between the dates 8, 1, 6

Conan had checked up almost everything about this three numbers. 816 was the area code in the state of Missouri that had no linked whatsoever to the case. Converting to English, 816 would be HAF. Meaningless to Conan. He had even looked up horoscopes, stars, occult, greek myths etc. he had even checked up history of 16 Aug and came up with nothing useful relating to bombs

Whirling the pen he was holding, he was so absorbed in his thinking that he didn't notice Ran walking into his room until she spoke.

"Conan-kun, what are you doing?" she asked, leaning over Conan's tale to peer at his work.

"Eh… this… this…" Conan stuttered. It was too late to hide the paper.

"Maths question." He answered in his childish tone.

"Eh. Maths question?" ran asked skeptically. She seemed to want to help Conan, after all it was supposed to be elementary math but upon seeing the complicated numbers, figures and arrows and diagrams, she gave an awkward chuckle and said, "Urm… How about you look at it more simply?" With a disjointed laugh, she left Conan alone with his 'math problem' muttering something like, "Geez. what do they teach at elementary school now…"

Conan watched her go, a bemused smile on his face.

_Look at it more simply hah?_ Conan hmphed. If it was simple, he could have solved in long ago, like Kid's heists. He wouldn't have need all the trouble of going through the books and research.

Conan signed and frowned. These numbers, 8,1,6 were the only possible clue to the perpetrator. According to some psychologist Conan had read up somewhere in the library, criminals attack in patterns. 816 must have some meaning to the perpetrator, unless he is just going on a wild killing spree. Which was not the case because all his attacks were targeted at the Beika area. He had a purpose in his acts, therefore he must be rational and have some sort of pattern that made sense to him.

Conan leaned back, stretching his stiff body. 816….

~Yonyi 6th hospital, 9th floor

The bulky man, height on the short side, stepped out the elevator onto a floor filled with kids. Naturally since the 8th floor was the children ward level. Making his way slowly down the rows and rows of room, he stopped before one of them.

Slowly he turned the knob and entered the room. The room was probably just like any other. It had 6 children beds. All of them had name plates at the foot of the bed, this meant that all the beds were taken up by sick little children. But at the current time, most of the beds were messy, unmade and empty. It was visiting time after all. Most of them would probably be out in the garden, at the TV room with their parents or friends except for one little girl on the innermost bed, sleeping soundly.

The bulky man headed straight towards the sleeping girl.

~Conan's room

"Ring. Ring." the sudden shrillingness of his handphone woke Conan up early on a Sunday morning. He rubbed his eyes open and reached out to the source of the voice. The caller ID read Mitsuhiko.

"moshi moshi?" he answered in his groggy tone.

"Conan-kun?" came Mitsuhiko's voice in a tone of worry and distress.

"What is it, Mitsuhiko?" He questioned suddenly awake. The tone of Mitsuhiko meant that there was something wrong.

"It's Ayumi' He rasped. "…She's hospitalized…" Conan's eyes opened in surprise. Ayumi-chan got injured and is hospitalized? What on earth could have happened?

'Where is she?" Conan asked urgently. At the same time, he leapt out of bed.

"Yon…yonyi 6th hospital." Mitsuhiko suttered. Conan hanged up the phone and dressed hurriedly.

"Conan-kun?" A very sleepy Ran opened his door at the sound of his footsteps and noise.

"Arh. Ran-neechan? Ohayo. I'm going to the hospital. A friend to injured." Conan explained. He took the skateboard from underneath the bed. "Ah. Do you know where yonyi 6th hospital is?" He asked, suddenly realizing he didn't know the address.

"Hah?" ran rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn. "4…1….6? What's that?"

"No. no. not 4,1,6, Yonyi 6th hospital." Conan explained, more clearly this time. Suddenly he was struck by a sudden realization. Yonyi 6th and 416.

* * *

Ok. so you've got. it was a bit short, but its ok the next chapters are gonna be longgggggggggggggggg. seriously! haha. anyways, 416 came from the previous chapter somewhere. xP do u know where? xD xD xD

haha. next chapter or next few chapters i'll explain where 416 came from and how 816 is related to it x) and everything will become clear. :)

Shiroi Mi signs off.


	16. Final piece to the puzzle

As promised xD double installation. here is the second. xD

* * *

Yonyi 6th hospital and 416. Why hadn't he realized it earlier? Conan wanted to hit himself for being so oblivious. The words Ran said the day before rang in his ears, "Look at it more simply?"

Oh, darn it. 416. the first numbers that came out on this case. The note from the bomber through fax to the police headquarters, the circus case. The note had read at 4.16, when the second hand strikes twelve, come to Beika Greens and watch the finale grand. **At 4.16** (4=yon, 1=ichi[yi], 6=6th hospital). So therefore 416 = yonyi 6th did he not notice the significance?

Hakase had picked him up in his yellow beetle. In the car, Haibara had also came along after receiving a similar distraught phone call from Mitsuhiko. Conan fished out his 'shinichi' phone and dialed Kid's number.

"Kid? Can you help me check out yonyi 6th hospital (416)'s history?" Conan fired off as soon as Kuroba picked up his phone.

"EH? Now?" came the reluctant response from Kid.

Oh damn. Who knew that from tantei-kun's discovery of his name. who bring him so much trouble? Kid rolled his eyes. He is so never, ever again going to 'friend' another detective with him on the losing end of course. Kid smirked.

"You're gonna owe me." He said into the phone. Conan could hear the computer start up in Kuroba's house. He could just about visualize Kuroba swirling his chair as he typed on his computer. _"well, it is kind of useful have the phantom Kaitou Kid around when you need information_" Conan thought to himself, a satisfied grin on his face.

"can you be more specific? History of what?" Kuroba said into phone.

Conan paused to think. He hadn't thought it through since he suddenly realized 8,1,6 the numbers he couldn't solve before.

"History of room 816." He said. "Anything that might be a possible motive for murder, revenge. Call me back as soon as possible." Then he hang up as the yellow beetle drew to a stop at the white hospital building of yonyi 6th hospital. Haibara stared knowingly at Conan. "Good friends now eh? Kid and Kudo?" She said with a tingle of sarcasm.

"wurusai na…" conan muttered under his breath as he stepped out of the car.

Kid on the other end stared the phone like it was object of years long of hate. He was insulted that tantei-kun had hang up on him, on HIM! The great magician on the sky. He sulked. He made a mental note to pay it back to his tantei-kun in the next heist. But he set about to do what tantei had asked him to, he was interested now, curious in fact, to whatever Tantei-kun was up to. And tantei-kun seemed real urgent for his information so he'll just add that to two favours owed by tantei-kun. Kid smirked. His mind was already whirling faster than the computer on what pranks to play on tantei-kun in the next heist.

~Yonyi 6th hospital

Conan and Haibara met the two worried grade schoolers, Mitsuhiko and Genta at the hospital main entrance. With hakase, they went to find out which room Ayumi was in.

They took the elevator up. In the elevator, Mitsuhiko filled them in on the details. From his rather broken narrative, Conan could make up that Ayumi seemed to be rather seriously injured from his tone, something about electronic spy camera and trees and falling down and broken bones.

The shounen tantei-dan members stepped out of the lift at the 8th floor, the children's ward. They ran down the corridor until they round the room they were after 863. The name plate outside had Ayumi Yoshida Sama and 2 other unfamiliar names. They opened the door and went in.

"Ayumi-chan! Yoshida-kun! Ayumi" the group called out in worry when they opened the door. The bed nearest to the door was Ayumi's. she looked better than what mitsuhiko had sounded.

The group walked towards her.

Ayumi was awake. She smiled at them. From her appearance, bandages and medicine, Conan could deduce that she had broken her left leg, fractured her right hand, probably hurt when she tried to brace her fall. Her arms had small shallow scratches that had been tended to, probably from tress/shrubs which scratched her as she fell.

Ayumi looked their worried faces embarrassedly. "I'm fine." She said.

"What happened?" Haibara asked.

"You know the spy camera that Mitsuhiko-kun gave me? I wanted to put it up at this tree that was near this hospital." She paused, embarrassedly again. "There's this bird that always stops on that tree but flies away when we go near it, so… I wanted a picture of it closeup and thought of using the spy camera. But a branch broke. I fell and was carried here by Arai-san." she grinned sheepishly.

"Mah mah. The best thing is that you're fine." Hakase said encouraging.

Beep. Beep. Conan's handphone rang. It was Kid's call. He excused himself while the rest of them continued chatting with Ayumi.

"moshi moshi?"

"Arh? Tantei-kun? I found a whole load of juicy details." kuroba said on the other end.

'On sept 6, 2 years ago, a girl was brought in to hospital after an assault. They didn't say which kind but my guess it would be attempted because she was quite seriously injuried. You want me to name you all her wounds?" Kid asked.

"No. go on." Conan said quietly.

"So they did an emergency operation. The report said the operation was successful. The girl was hospitalized in room 816, then before the big renovation later that year, was the special care ward. However her condition worsened and she died on 7th Sept." Kid explained.

Conan glanced at his watch, eyes opening wide in shock. 7th of Sept was today!

'What time?" he asked urgently.

"the official time of death was 6:08pm." kid replied casually. He did a thorough job for his tantei-kun of course.

"Can you find me the details of this case?" Conan asked, urgently. Ayumi was hospitalized in that exact same floor today. If he were to fail to stop the bomb, Ayumi would also become a casualty and not to mention, all the other innocent children patients. He hadn't even got one clue for the mysterious entity stopping the bombing and he had no assurance that this strange entity would manage to stop the bomb again, especially if the bomber had personally planted the bomb since this was probably the final bomb, the direct revenge.

"I thought you would ask." Kid replied, smirking with confidence. "I looked it up." Conan heard a few clicks of the mouse from the other end.

"It was an attempted murder, 6 Sept 2 years ago. The casualties was Fukuba Mi, 7 years old at that time. Multiple stab wounds. The case was suspended because of the lack of evidence."

"The family members?" Conan prompted.

"Only 1. Fukuba Kano, father."

Conan hanged up.

* * *

Ok. so ere u go. xD you've got your criminal, your motive but there is no TIME!

the darkness is not yet over. xP next chapter will be ACTIONRACE AGAINST TIME hope you likes this chapter x)

Shiroi Mi.


	17. Action, race against time

Gomen for the wait. my com won't let me upload anything. anyway, here is the next installment. uploaded at fren's com. :) sooo... dunno when can upload again. but anyway. enjoy

* * *

It was 4.58pm now. Only about an hour half more to go if Fukuba-san, the bomber, decided to bomb the hospital ward room 816 at 6:08 pm precisely when Fukuba Mi died. Visiting hours end at 5:30 pm. He only have about half an hour to find the bomb.

He excused himself from the group with Ai still giving him i-know-it-all smirk and headed to room 816. it was packed, messy. It would be impossible for him to find the bomb within 20 minutes among all those junk. Moreover even if he did, he could disarm it without proper equipment. He didn't want to waste anymore time. This case was more becoming more and more important to him especially now with Ayumi in the exact same hospital. He couldn't evacuate the people, some of the patients are not free to move.

Oh damn. He was pressed, real hard for time.

~At the Beika police headquarters

It was chaos. The whole police department were messed up. The fax from the bomber had arrived. They had expected clues like the previous times but it was blank and furthermore, this time the bomber had even faxed the same note to the media! Media always screws things up. They managed to hold down the media for now, but if they were to fail to stop the bomb this time, things are seriously going to get out of hand. The paper had only his signature and a time, which they suspect to the time of explosion for the next bomb. 6:08 pm. It was already 5pm. There was no time. They had no idea who this was, no idea where it would be, no way of stopping this disaster.

An emergency meeting was held. Panic was understatement.

Megure was put in charge of the case. Even the police superintendents attended it. Other than Megure and the uppers, Sato, takagi, Shiratori and Yumi were there too from the first division. Along with the entire bomb disarm team.

The clock was ticking merciless. The police had nowhere to start. They can't search the entire Beika area in an hour's time even if they wanted to! It was impossible. Despair loomed over them, swallowing them whole

~ Yonyi 6th hospital

Conan was also in despair. He had motive, he had solved the case but he had no evidence.

~outside Yonyi 6th hospital

A tall lean male, dressed in black overcoat, hat and boots stood watching the building meaningfully. He was the same male that was spotted outside Mouri tantei agency no long ago. His hands never left his pockets. His eyes never left the building. He was pointedly staring at the eighth floor, pointedly staring at room 816.

~8th floor of Yonyi 6th hospital

Witness! Conan suddenly remembered. There was at least 1 person who knew who the perpetrator was, had shadowed him and prevented the bombings. If he could get 1 eyewitness, the case could be open to further investigation and they might find the bomb with the bomber's fingerprints! Just then the loudspeaker sounded, "all visitors, visiting time for today has ended. May all visitors please take their leave. All patients please return to your rooms as doctors will be going around for the routine check. I repeat…" Conan knew who the bomber was, so therefore, if he could find the bomber, the mysteriously entity would be somewhere near him. It would be a gamble but he had no other choice. There's only 1 hour left and Ayumi was hospitalized in that same hospital too.

He hastily greeted the shounen tantei-dan good bye and went about to set his plan in motion.

~Meeting room at Beika headquarters

The room was in unease, tension was high. There had been arguing for 30 mins with no conclusion reached, no action taken. They had squeezed their brain juices for possible clues but came up with nothing. The clock on the wall was moving towards 5:30pm, less than an hour left. This time they were really doomed.

Suddenly a phone rang. Everyone turned to check their phones. It was Megure keibu's, the caller ID showed withheld. The superintendent gave him a nod, asking to answer it, just in case it was from the bomber.

"Moshi moshi?" megure asked.

"Keibu? This is Kudo Shinichi." came the urgent voice form the other end.

"kudo-kun?" megure was surprised. Why had he called?

"Hai. This is Kudo, can you put this call on speakerphones for everyone to hear?" Kudo said calmly.

'eh? But we are in the middle of… something important." Megure said hesitantly.

"I know. The bombing case right? I've solved it." that got Megure's attention.

"NANI?" Megure suddenly yelled into the phone. "alright. I'll put it on. Give me a minute." megure pressed the speakerphone button on his phone and set it on the table with its volume on max.

"Konnichiwa mina-san. This is Kudo Shinichi." said the phone. A unison gasp escaped from the room. "I've solved the bombing case. Please listen carefully. I will not be repeating." the people in the room were bewildered, they looked from megure to the superintendent, with the question who did he know written on their faces. But they didn't get any answers from the two in-charge.

"the next bomb, probably the last, is going to be exploding at 6:08 pm today. The bomber is Fukuba Kano-san, father of the Fukuba Mi-chan. I am sure some of you would know the case. It was from 2 years ago. Fukuba Mi was victim of an assault but due to the lack of evidence the case was closed without conclusion and Mi-chan had died in hospital today at 6:08 pm. The location of the bomb would be in room 816 at Yonyi 6th hospital. Please send the bomb squad over immediately. Oh but be careful to do it secretly so the bomber would not know. If he knew, I am not sure what course of action he would take. Fukuba Kano is most likely to be in his house right now" Kudo finished.

With that, the whole room of people suddenly leapt into action. The bomb squad was dispatched. Sato and Takagi went to find the Fukuba Mi file. Megure picked up his phone and spoke to it.

"Demo.. How did you know Kudo-kun?"

"I'll explain that on a later occasion. "

Just as megure keibu was about to press Kudo for more information, Sato and Takagi burst in the room with the Fukuba Mi's file with Yumi behind them.

"I found it." Sato interrupted.

"Fukuba Mi, daughter of Fukuba Kano-san. The address is here too." Takagi added.

"Alright. Yumi, Sato, Takagi, let's go." Megure said, hanging up on his phone.

* * *

END


	18. Case closed

last chapter until who knows when. xD until my com recovers. xD gomen ne mina!

* * *

~ Fukuba's house

Fukuba-san sat alone in his living room. The house was silent. The lights were dim. The clock that hung on the wall read 6.04pm. 4 more minutes to the grand finale of his revenge. The coffee table before him was littered with empty beer cans. He didn't know why he felt this way. He was supposed to be happy, exhilarated, overjoyed that his revenge was finally going to be complete, but instead, he felt grief.

Revenge for his precious daughter murdered and never brought to justice. He had once been an upright citizen, supportive of the police, government and whatever not, but Mi's murder turned everything upside down. Even though he had lost his wife long ago when Mi was only three, the house was always lively and cheerful.

_"Papa! Welcome back!" Mi would greet with such a bright brilliant smile and run to hug him. _

But Mi-chan would never smile like that ever again. Now all she's got was a cold coffin, buried beside her mother whom she barely knew.

Fukuba-san hated the police now. They didn't do anything for Mi. They didn't bring justice. What crap that police are 'righteous', 'protectors', they are merely a bunch of useless hypocrites.

Fukuba turned on the TV and turned into a random channel, showing a meaningless variety show. He was waiting for his bomb to go off at 6:08pm precise. He knew it would hit the news, top news, highlight immediately and after he witnessed that happen, he's going to take his own life.

"Mi-chan? Papa is coming to you soon. Sorry that you were lonely for 2 years, but wait a while more, papa is coming." a tear rolled down his cheek, it refracted the moonlight that was the only source of light in the room causing it to sparkle like jewel.

The clock read 6:07. just 60 more seconds to go…

The TV chattered noisily, 50 more seconds to go.

The neighbour returned, his garage door opened with a noisy mechanical sound. 40 more seconds to go.

The birds outside of the house suddenly took flight, their wings flapped noisily in the wind. 30 more seconds to go.

The neighbour's children returned with their loud voices. 20 more seconds to go.

There was a loud knock on the door, repeated and insistent, urgent. Fukuba-san ignored it. 10 more seconds to go.

And then…..

There was silence.

The clock struck 6:08pm. The person outside the door continued knocking, rapping the door with great force.

The TV continued its boring variety show.

No news flash. No explosion. No nothing.

Fukuba-san froze in shock, not moving and silent. A sea of questions in his mind.

Suddenly, he realized. He had failed again even though he had purposely sent a blank piece of paper the police, even though he had sent it to the media even though… even though….. The knocking on the door which seemed to distant and surreal to him now suddenly became loud and deafening to his ears. Reality came crashing back down. He was broken.

"POLICE. FREEZE" The people who had been knocking persistently on his door for the past minute finally gave up and knocked his door down. They scrambled in like a riot squad, completely surrounding him.

It didn't matter anymore. He didn't even attempt to resist as handcuffs were snapped on him by a female policewoman named Yumi.

"This is Megure. You are know under arrest for repeated bombing attempts, Fukuba Kano-san." megure's loud voice echoed in the silent room. Takagi and Sati stood behind megure.

"Demo. Demo. How did you know?" He asked, lost and confused.

Conan walked in. He had heard the address from the phone and rushed their with his skateboard arriving just at that moment.

"The dates." he said. All eyes turned to him. This was the exact same question that everyone, including the police wanted to ask.

"the first clue come from the circus bombing fax you sent. At 4:16. you had written. 416 is the hint to the location. Your motive for these bombings. 416 = yonyi 6th hospital. Then the dates for the subsequent bombing, there were separated with 8 days between first and second, 1 day between second and third and 6 days between the third and fourth. These 3 numbers would give you ward number 816." Conan paused for breath.

"After digging around a bit, ward 816 used to be the special care ward 2 years ago before the renovation. Your daughter fukuba Mi had died there exactly 2 years ago today, at 6:08 pm from an attempted murder." Conan paused giving the people watching him a meaningful stare.

The crowd looked at him with surprised and shock. Who was this kid blabbering all these? Conan suddenly realized he had gone out of his 'kid' persona quickly added, 'this is all what Shinichi-niichan told me." then the crowd sighed in understanding.

"Oh, so that's why. Megure keibu? The bomb was disarmed and found under the innermost bed in room 816." sato said from behind.

"I see." Megure replied.

"that's right! I avenged Mi-chan! It was all you police fault. Mi-chan was innocent. She died and yet the murderer wasn't put into justice." Fukuba-san grinned a crazed, mad smile. He suddenly lurged with great force from Yumi's grasp, presently a knife. "I'm coming to you Mi-chan!" he said, looking upwards, holding the knife to his throat, about to plunge it in.

"No you don't." Conan and Yumi suddenly shouted together. They both leapt at him. Yumi kneed the guy's wrist, knocking the knife out of his hand. With a twist of her body, she bounded and subdued the guy before Conan would react. Conan blinked. Wow!

After that fukuba-san was walked out. His eyes were hallow, blank. He didn't resist at all. He had given up all hope. He was in despair, swallowed in despair, destruction.

Conan watched the ordeal end. A sad gaze in his eyes.

"Conan-kun, there one more question I wanted to ask" Megure said as he passed by Conan.

Conan looked up expectedly. 'What?"

Megure peered down at him. "how did Kudo-kun know all these?"

Conan was stunned. Oh shoots. In this craze race with time, he had forgotten to consider this part. He wasn't supposed to know all these details and fax and stuff…. Oh crap. Oh crap.

Megure was peering down on him rather determinedly. CRAP!

"I told him." a voice suddenly came from behind. Megure turned to look. "Yumi-san?' Both Conan and megure looked equally shocked.

"I thought a detective could help us with the case. Actually I accidentally leaked it out during one of his calls. So…" Yumi giggled sheepishly.

"Mou Yumi-kun… be careful next time." Megure said, but let Yumi off lightly because her telling to Kudo-kun had helped them solved the case. He would go back to the headquarters and give her a good scolding later, not in front of Conan-kun at least.

Megure stepped into the waiting car. Conan suddenly called out. "Shinichi-niichan said…"

'to keep this a secret right?" megure completed the sentence for him. "hmph. Kids these days…." he muttered as he left, leaving a saluting Yumi with Conan-kun at the sidewalk.

Conan reverted back into his 'adult' mode. "Dressing up as a girl really is your fetish isn't it Kid-san?" He said.

"Mah mah. I just saved your skin." Yumi, or rather Yumi with Kid's voice said.

"I didn't ask for it." Conan pouted.

"oi oi. Don't I at least get a thanks. You really owe me for this one you know." Kid said, already changed back into his everyday clothes, out of the tight policewoman uniform.

"Alright…" Conan sighed. He really wasn't in the mood of arguing with Kid. He was sure Ran would be screaming her head off if he didn't get back soon. "Thanks." He murmured softly, looking on the floor.

"that's more like it." Kid, or rather Kuroba, said. "here's an invitation for you." Kuroba grinned. "there was one more reason I came to Beika headquarters today." then with a puff of smoke he disappeared. Conan stared at the piece of paper that Kuroba had dropped on his palm. It was white, pure white, clean and crisp. The first thing that caught his eye? The big KID smirk signature at the end of it

* * *

cya soon. promise will be back xD


	19. In Kid's world, growing up doesn't exist

Hello all, here is the next installment of PANDORA'S END  
Here is a short recap of what happened before this:

KID was sniped by Sake during one of his heist in Osaka. He nearly lost his life if not for Conan. Conan and Hattori managed to save him with help from Haibara to treat his wounds. However KID's cover is blown. But in exchanged for disguise lessons, Hattori and Conan temporarily did not turn him to the police. Returning to Tokyo, Conan and Shounen tantei-dan met up with a peculiar case of bombing where each bombing was prevented by an unknown identity. Although Conan rightly deduced the culprit and prevented major damages, the unknown identity remains unknown. Then Conan got a personal invite from KID to his new heist.

* * *

"heyyyy? So that Kid thief sent you a personal invitation?" Hattori said over the phone.

Conan wedged the phone between his shoulders and ear, still meaningfully staring at the white piece of paper he received the day before.

"He's being a idiot. The organization is still after him and here he goes again, flashing himself in white against black." Conan muttered disapprovingly.

"He's like volunteering to be the shooting target for a sniper in a training field or something." Conan said into the phone.

"Try talk him out of it then." hattori replied on the other end.

"Tried to and failed. His brains just don't work normal." Conan shrugged into the phone although Hattori couldn't see him anyway.

"So you are going to his heist then? Where was it? Tokyo somewhere wasn't it?" Hattori said. The Kid heists were in so much a craze in Osaka since the so called shooting then even something a thievery happening in Tokyo would be publicized all round in Osaka. Almost every newspaper had a headline somewhere that said, "KID is back!" or "KID! dead and revived!" or something along those lines.

"Yeah. Tokyo museum. They are displaying some Big jewel there." Conan said uninterestedly.

"Hmm? You sound like you don't wanna go."

"I don't. I have got better things to do then to put up with someone's strange frenzies such as being the shooting target practice of his sniper." Conan answered nonchalently. He still hadn't got hold of the identity of the mysterious person involved in the bombing case and it was driving him mad.

"But you're going?" Hattori asked, bewildered at Conan's strange reactions.

Conan didn't reply. He was going true enough. But it wasn't because he wanted to, he had to. The stupid Kurobe had written 3 words at the end of the his heist notice. Just 3 measly words, tiny, scrawny. Probably the shortest threat letter ever. It had read, _you owe me_. Oh well, admittedly he would have gone not matter what. But he would never have admitted that he was worried about kaito's well-being.

Hattori mused at Conan's silence. The conversation then slowly died out and thus, both of then hanged up their phones.

Conan flopped onto bed.

~Tokyo jewel museum

The museum was usually a place that made one think of solitude, quietness and perhaps a little loneliness. It certainly won't be the hippest place in town. But tonight, it was. It was like the whole of tokyo had gone down to the museum to have their night life. Thanks to some phantom thief who had his brains wired wrong.

Conan was at the corner of the room. He wasn't really looking for Kid this time. Sure he was keeping about half an eye out for him but more importantly he was looking for snipers and whatever not.

The heist this round was even crazier and more welcomed than the last. The news had this in headlines. People were beginning to question the last so called 'shooting' and 'dying' and 'injury'.

The jewel the Kid was going to steal was called Raindrop. It was a large blue crystal shaped in a tear shape. It glistened brightly under the lighting of the museum. History had it that during the 17th century, it was found in Tokyo. It was dug up by some worker. And since then, the presence of such an English jewel found in Japan land had been the topic of interest for many.

"Yo." came a quiet, spooky voice from behind. Conan momentarily froze before registering the voice under Kudo Shinichi, or rather more accurately Kuroba Kaitou impersonating Kudo Shinichi.

Conan didn't reply back, just continued his surveillance of the crowd that was getting thicker with time. Thus adding to his stress more and more.

"ignoring me?" the voice said again from behind.

"I don't exactly want to know (implying talk, being around, being aware of and being friends with) you." Conan said back.

"Cold as ever." Kaito replied, giving a dramatic shudder. "You know why I had to do this heist?"

"I don't. and I don't want to either. You shouldn't being doing this when you know They are after you." then Conan muttered, "just adding to my troubles as if I don't have enough."

Although he said it very very softly, but Kid heard it, loud and clear.

"Caring for me?" Kaito teased, a big Kid grin on his face. Secretly, he was touched by tantei-kun's concern.

"Who is?" Conan shot back, embarrassed.

"Mah mah. Calm down. I know you aren't happy about this heist but Kid's heist can't just stop out of the blue. It's out of character."

"you care more about your character then your life?" Conan said back sarcastically (probably too much influence from Haiabra), plainly disapproving. He did care about the stupid magician. It was just an old trait that he had, he tended to look after others too much, not that he knew about it himself. Or would ever admit, except for Ran.

Kid chuckled. "you need to lighten up a little tantei-kun. The last case had got you all old and winkled." Kid smiled gaily, joking. Seeing that tantei-kun didn't respond, he further added, "alright. Alright. They won't be attacking today. Today is just a duel between me and you."

That got Conan's attention. His eyes opened wide. His ears perked up, literally. Conan glanced back for the first time looking away from the crowd and finally seeing Kuroba. His face showed the how-did-you-know look.

Kid loved it when he kept people in suspense and see them go crazy with it. He grinned the I'm-not-telling-you smile.

The crowd sudden cheer of "3, 2" interrupted their conversation.

Kid smiled. It was showtime. Kid thought as he slithered back into the shadows. Although he claimed the heist was for tantei-kun, but he couldn't lie to himself. He was very intrigued by the teardrop jewel and furthermore, just like tantei kun hanging out with him was taxing on him, he hanging out with tantei-kun had just been as taxing. The deal was still that if tantei-kun caught him on a heist proper, he could end his life as the phantom thief.

"1" he whispered together with the crowd.

And he wanted to get back tantei-kun for using him in the last case. Give and take. The world's most fundemental policy.

'Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!" Kid's voice echoed through the museum somehow invisibly amplified. At that moment, the poof of smoke shield reveals him standing in the middle of the musuem suspended (or rather just standing) in the air. The crowd went mad, squeals, shots of camera flashes erupted.

"Ho. What have I done to be honoured by such a wonderful crowd today?" Kid said with an alluring smile of his face.

The crowd went even crazier with shrills, stricks and possible faints from where Conan stood. Around him, several reporters were shouting questions at him regarding the last osaka shootout case but in this level of noise, no one could have heard any one else. It is ironic how sound can be so loud and yet not heard by anyone.

Conan had purposely chosen that specific corner in the room because of its advantage in height (it was elevated slightly) and of course, being at the back he could spy on anyone inconspicuously and possible shoot a soccerball at anyone raising a rifle or pistol to get a shot at Kid. Also he did not want to see caught careless on any camera that was trained on Kid. The number of official media coverage had doubled this time, with TV stations even from Osaka in the midst. And that made him especially suspicious given the multiple past occasions where his picture had adorned the front page of the newspaper alongside with Kid's.

As Conan perched on his 'elevated platform', he spotted Nakamori screaming, red faced and puffy at his squad. He laughed to himself. He could see his mouth opening and closing in a rapid fashion but couldn't hear anything from him in the noise of cheers. But he could read his lips;

"GET HIM DOWN! MOVE IT! MOVE IT." Nakamori had 'said'.

At his command, 2 of his squad moved in in in full battalion uniform. Kid smiled charmingly at the two approaching officers, red with either heat or outright frustration at him. He snapped his fingers with resounded in the hall (though Conan knew in that instant that the sound was probably a recording), Kid vanished and reappeared behind where the officers stood, his grin getting wider. The officers bewildered and lost turned, unfortunately not in syncro, and hit each other hard on the head, knocking both of them out.

"KIDDDD." came Nakamori's angry response that through the live television screen that a nearby girl was holding. Lo and behold, who was the rich ojou-sama holding that latest piece of technology? Sonoko.

"KIDSAMA! KIDSAMA!" Sonoko went excitedly to the screen as the television camera did a close up on the white-cladded phantom thief's face that is mostly obscured by his monocle. From the screen Kid gave a mischievous grin as he successively put down most of the attacking police officers with simple trips and teasing magic. All which just served to raise Nakamori's temperature more.

Getting bored with playing around with the taskforce, Kid suddenly vanished. Although the right word was probably disappeared into the crowd and "poof" reappeared holding the Raindrop jewel. "This jewel, I shall, as according to my word, take it." He gave a gentlemanly bow and once again began dodging Nakamori's attack while talking.

"but the highlight of the show isn't this." He said suddenly. Then grinning like a small boy with all the excitement in the world, he said, "we are going to play a classic game of tag of course with a little magic!" His blue eyes twinkled with joy.

"There is an accomplice of mine amongst the crowd. A _special_ accomplice." He said mysteriously. Then he pointedly looked at Conan. Conan at this very moment, felt a very very very bad shiver. Whatever he is about to say next isn't going to be good.

'The doors to this hall are locked and all of you, my fans, are my chosen players." He smiled at the camera. "the game goes like this. This jewel, Raindrop, shall be the winning prize. It is a battle between all of you and me, not forgetting my accomplice. As you all know, this jewel glows in the dark. I'll be able protecting this jewel of mine with all my might and you all shall be 'it' and try to take it from me. Of course, the winner who manages to take this jewel from me, aside from having protected peace and upheld justice in preventing a said robbery and having your photo frontpage tomorrow's news, (Kid looked pointedly at the already fuming Nakaomori-keibu) , you shall... get a kiss from me." Then he winked to the camera.

The tension of the room skyrocketed. The girls squealed with delight, especially a certain rich ojou-sama who saw the flirting wink up close from her monitor. "KISS~" "He said kiss!"

"Well, do your best, but don't forget who you are up against." Kid said finally as the lights suddenly dimmed. "I'm a… magician." with that, the lights dimmed completely and everything was dark except for the jewel that Kid had held up which glowed a pretty blue.

As the hall darkened, Kid quickly put on his night vision glasses. The battle was hot as the first row nearby fans began reaching out towards the blue glow. The glow suddenly disappeared and the crowd's tension raised another notch. Flashlights, by Nakamori and his squad, scanned the surroundings. Several people were also taking out handphones to use as lights to help them see.

Everyone wanted a piece of the jewel, for justice? Conan highly doubted so. It was more like everyone wanted a piece of KID. Rolling his eyes, he sat back to wait until the silly game was over and where Kid would proudly hold up his jewel and claim victory. (Rule 1 of kaito heist: Kid always gets his hands on the jewel)

The blue glow of the jewel danced around the congested room. It was to everyone's bewilderment how Kid supposedly carrying the jewel could navigate in such a congested room where most people could hardly most 1 step from where they stood. But seeing is believing isn't it? The light from the jewel indeed glowed and flickered. Disappeared and reappeared at surprising speed. Occasionally two such glows were visible.

Suddenly the glow stopped jumping around and reappeared at a spot surprisingly close to Conan. All the people turned and surged inwards to reached for the suddenly stationary glow. Conan blinked and realized with a sudden horror that he was holding the stupid jewel. And the stupid jewel was giving its alluring blue glow and everyone was suddenly surging towards that glow which KID was supposed to be holding.

In the dimness of the room, no one knew who was doing what. All the fans of KID leaned in towards Conan. KID watched Conan's face of pure shock and aghast when he realized his situation. In a matter of seconds, he was tackled down onto the floor and compressed with those fallen on top of him before he could even explain himself that he isn't KID.

Shouts of "I've caught KID! I've got the jewel" resounded in the hall. Shouts of Nakamori screaming to clear the way in a futile attempt to arrest the 'caught KID' are added fuel to the fire. At that instant, the lights of the hall relit and everyone in the hall was momentarily blinded by the light and stopped moving.

The debris of the war is as follows:

A human heap lay at the back corner of the room where Conan had sat just seconds before watching the crowd go wild trying to catch the jewel. Now, he lay at the bottom of the pile. Suffocating to say the least…. Perhaps more than a little squashed and flattened.

Nakamori quickly cleared the mess and discovered one semi-conscious Conan with eyes swirling around in a spiral from the sudden attack holding the jewel in his hand. KID took the moment to reappear and gave a wide smile to the camera, signaling it to come closer.

'Ja the promised kiss" he said and leaned in to kiss the small tantei who was still in the confused state on the forehead. The cute sight of the two got an overwhelming response from the crowd as "awww…." resounded in the hall.

With that, KID vanished.

* * *

Yep. don't worry the next chap is done alr. After some fine-tuning it will be up soon.

Please review if you feel like it :D

Shiroi Mi.


	20. Chance encounter

This release is wayyyy ahead of its scheduled time but updated as thanks to my very very supportive reader and reviewer, TWILIGHTreader1. Thank you so much really.

To all of you readers too, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your continued supported. Yep! So here's a little reader bonus? :DDD

Shiroi Mi.

* * *

2 weeks after the Kid heist, Conan was walking back to Mouri tantei agency from sulking. Well, the boy himself would never admit it, but he was sulking alright. He had played the part of the fool in the last KID heist without knowing that he played it, making him more of the fool than ever. The stupid kiss, the crowd, the so stupidly simple strategy that is so stupidly unorthodox and so stupidly…. (blah blah blah blah) But all in all, summing it up with 1 word is: SULKING.

"Mou. Conan-kun are you even listening?" Mitsuhiko asked in a high-pitched tone, irritated.

Conan halted in his mindless walk with a slight startle. "Huh? Eh? Er? Yes." Which totally mean DUH-I-WAS-NOT-LISTENING.

The shounen tantei-dan gave a unison sigh.

"Conan kun you seem really out of it these days." Ayumi asked in a concerned voice. "Are you not feeling well?"

"well, Of course Edogawa-kun is not feeling well, he hasn't recovered since the last KID heist." Ai added with a smirk, earning herself a glare from Conan which did not bother her at all.

"Oh." Ayumi said with a sad, full of pity smile. "That must have been traumatizing. " ayumi murmured with slumped shoulders and a heavy sigh. For one, Ayumi wasn't particularly happy at having her Conan kun stolen by a thief, even if it was a thief she fancied.

Seeing that the direction of the conversation was going in the wrong direction, Conan put both hands in front of him in a STOP sign. "hey. Hey. Let's not go into that. Sorry Mitsuhiko, where were you just now?"

Mitsuhiko seemed more than happy to pick back the previous conversation. "As I was saying Conan-kun, there is going to be a limited time sale for Secrets of the Abyss Game 2 of the series. It is going to be on tomorrow at the Haido City Mall."

"Oh. Sure, let's go to the Haido City Mall tomorrow and get it." Conan said with feigned excitement. He would do almost anything to get the conversation off that KID topic. Haibara gave him a knowing look before passing him and walking more towards the front, joining Ayumi at the head of the shounen tantei-dan. Conan scowled at Haibara's back.

Once again, Conan found himself in a shopping mall. A place he didn't particularly like especially with all the noise and crowd. And worst of all, he found himself in the game section of a VCD shop looking at computer games which he utterly had no interest in. Haibara had accompanied Hakase to his medical checkup and escaped from this. The Shinichi inside gave a big sigh.

Conan stood by the shelf that screamed "DISCOUNTS! COMPUTER GAMES" and fingered lightly the various boxes of games on the shelf. His eyes, although glancing over everything, weren't seeing anything. "Conan-kun, are you buying that?" Ayumi asked as she and the tantei-dan walked up behind him.

Conan was startled slightly (again) by her voice and glanced to see the package which he had subconsciously been holding for a good 10 mins (or maybe more)? "Oh, Bunny Hunt! That's one of my favourites!" Ayumi exclaimed in delight. Conan secretly choked at the name - BUNNY HUNT? What kind of silly game was it?

"I didn't know Conan was into this kind of games…." Genta said with a small frown.

Conan glanced at the cover box design. It was pink all over with many many bunnies on the cover, as appropriate of BUNNY HUNT. Quite embarrassed, he clumsily shoved the box back into the shelf among the many other copies of BUNNY HUNT and gave a feeble excuse as he did so. One that he didn't even remember what he said exactly himself.

As they finally finalized their game choice, Mitsuhiko and Genta bought the Abyss game and Ayumi bought some other game with fishes as its cover. The shounen tantei-dan headed to queue for the cashier to pay it.

"oh look. The final boss of Secrets of the Abyss 2 looks realllll cool!" Genta said, waving his game box high above his head and walked backwards to face the rest of the group. As he did so, he didn't realize he was about to bump into another tall male who was standing in front of them in the cashier line.

"AH!" Conan was about to warn Genta but was stopped short when Genta quite forcefully crashed into the taller male, sending the two of them scrambling in a tangle of limbs on the floor.

'Ouch…" The two of them lay on the floor, temporarily confused.

A younger girl who had been standing by the side of the male, talking to his just moments before, bent over them and asked, "Daijoubu?" in a concerned voice.

The tall male blinked a few times, trying to his bearings straight again and gave a feeble nod. "Still alive." He said.

At that moment, Conan thought the voice sounded familiar and he had a sinking feeling he knew who it was. He peered over mitsuhiko's shoulders at the two figures on the floor. As he suspected, it was KID or actually Kuroba Kaito at the moment. Genta was still lying on the floor with stars dancing around his eyes and below him was the tall Shinichi doppelganger.

"MOU KAITO! How long do you plan to stay lying there?" The tall girl said, disapprovingly. Conan's eyes were drawn towards the source of the voice. The face looked familiar. But Conan couldn't put his finger into it. Who was she?

Then the girl changed to a much friendlier and caring voice, bent down low and asked, "Boy-ya, you ok?" Then she offered a hand to Genta which Genta took gratefully. "Ar…arigatou Oneechan." Genta said slightly shy.

"Well, be careful when you walk. Keep you eyes in front." She said with a bright smile that said no-harm-done.

"Aren't you going to give me a hand up too?" Kaito who was still on the floor asked the girl.

"Hmph. No way in hell. Get up yourself." The girl said curtly, looking away. Conan could see her slight blush though. Suddenly Conan remembered, it was the girl he had met at the train platform all those months ago. Her name was… Aoko! He remembered.

"Chey." Kaito said with mock disappointment. He stood up and dusted himself. It was only then that he saw Conan. The two pairs of eyes met. KID gave Conan a smirking grin which Conan returned with a scowl. Wordless conversation took place.

_Kaito: Oh fancy seeing you here. _

_Conan: Hmph. Likewise here. _

_Kaito: Still sulking after the last heist? Hey that was 2 weeks ago._

_Conan: Damn you for reminding me. Next time you do that, I'm gonna make mincemeat out of you. _

_Kaito: Oi oi! Coming from you, its not funny (grins)_

Outwardly, the two expressed no change in emotion and pretended that they did not know each other. Just two strangers on the street.

"Oi Genta. Say sorry to the nii-chan you knocked down." Ayumi nudged Genta reprimanding.

"ahh. Ahh. Gomenaisai…." Genta said softly, eyes downcast and his voice low, trailing off.

"Ah. It's ok. It's ok. Don't worry about it." Kaito gave a cheery grin as he broke off contact with Conan, looking at Genta. Then squatting down, he pooffed with a little magic and gave Genta a sweet. At that, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko were wide with surprised and pleased. "SUGOI!" Ayumi exclaimed first, stepping closer to his.

"are you a magician?" She asked.

"yep. And here's a rose for you milady." Kaito said with a showman's charisma and magically pulled a rose from his palm, handing it over to bright-eyed Ayumi.

"I'm Kuroba Kaito. Pleased to meet you." Kaito said with a smile.

"I'm Ayumi! Pleased to meet you to Kuroba-niichan!" Ayumi returned.

"And I'm Mitsuhiko." "Genta" The boys introduced themselves one after another. Conan wasn't particularly interested in introducing himself so he didn't join in the tempo. However at the sudden silence after Genta, the three of them turned to look at him with daggers in their eyes.

"I got it. I got it. I'm Conan." He said in a bored tone.

"Together, we are the shounen tantei-dan!" The three of them exclaimed in unison, forming their pose.

"Heh? Tantei-dan? That's cool." Aoko, the tall female, said with a smile. "I'm Aoko. Pleased to meet you all too."

"Where are you guys from?" Aoko asked.

"We are from teitan-elementary." Mitsuhiko explained.

"Oh. We're from Ekoda High. Hey you all, we are going to have a school festival soon. Wanna come?" aoko asked. "There gonna be stalls with food, drinks and lots of games. Well, high school may be kindda far away for you all, but if you're interested do come down!"

"Nng! We will definitely go!." ayumi said on behalf of all of them, still entranced by Kaito's magic.

"Ja. Here's the poster for it." Aoko said handing them a copy of the poster which she took from her bag. She gave it to Mitsuhiko.

"Then see you all soon! My number is on it. Come with your parents! I'll bring you around. Call me on that day!." She said as the two of them walked off.

* * *

Heehee! There **IS** are reason for them to go to Ekoda High's festival. I'm sure most of you would be able to guess... no? Than wait for the next update! :D

ARGH I so wanna give spoilers now. Patience patience. ARGHH!

Shiroi Mi.


	21. Ekoda School Festival

Hello all readers! Here's the next chapter: CHANCE ENCOUNTER? Who are they going to meet? Read on!

* * *

The shounen tantei dan along with Hakase, Ran and Sonoko walked up to the gates of Ekoda High which stood wide open for the special occasion. Colourful banners and people were everywhere. As promised, stalls of food and games were lined up along the entrance and various students in uniform was giving out flyers and welcoming the guests. The large group of them stepped through the metal school gates soon to be greeted by a girl in uniform wearing a red head band. "Konnichiwa! Here's a map of the school and the program list. Please take one." She said with practiced fluency and a warm smile.

The girl handed each of them a copy of the pamphlet she was holding. "Urm. Do you know where I can find Aoko-san?" Ran asked.

"Oh. Aoko-senpai? She's in-charged of this year's school festival! Hm. You should be able to find her at the school courtyard at this time." The girl said before waving them off to greet another group of guests who had just arrived.

It was relatively crowded and the group took their time to look at the stalls and sample the food as they made their way to find Aoko at the courtyard.

"Ah. There she is." Conan said pointed to a girl in the distant background.

"honto! Your eyes are good, Conan-kun." Mitsuhiko commented.

Conan raised an eyebrow in secret. Well, to be honest, he hadn't saw Aoko first. He had saw himself first, aka the Kaito KID just beside her before seeing Aoko the person herself. Hey, who wouldn't be able to spot themselves from a distance? Especially one that you have been seeing in the mirror everyday for 18 years!

The group made their way towards the energetic girl. Aoko spotted them soon after and waved them over.

"I'm so glad you all made it, shounen tantei-dan. Who are these?" Aoko asked.

"Hm. Aoko-san? I'm Ran, this is my friend Sonoko and Hakase. We've got your invitation from the shounen tantei-dan and brought them over today. Sorry for imposing." Ran said gently.

"No problem! No problem! The more the merrier!" Aoko said beaming.

"Aoko-senpai!" came a loud shout from behind them. The group turned to look and saw two males running towards Aoko in a rush.

"Aoko-senpai.. The drama theatre has technical problems. What should we do?" the first asked.

"Got it. I'll be there in a jiffy." Aoko replied with authority and haste. Then looking apologetically at the group, she said, "I'm so sorry for not being able to bring you guys around. Well, for replacement, Kaito there will bring you around." She pointed to the Shinichi doppelganger.

Kaito's mouth gave a big O. "Eh? ME?" He said, pointing to himself like he couldn't believe it.

"yeah you. You haven't got anything to do right?" Aoko said in a rush before breaking into a run towards the trouble theatre presumably.

"Hei, Hei. " Kaito replied back softly in a lazy tone.

"Ok. Then I, Kuroba Kaito, shall bring you around." Kaito said with a smile that belonged more to Kid's face than his.

For the next hour or so, Kaito had brought them on a journey around his school. The tour ended with, not surprisingly, a little impromptu magic show by Kaito. Although the tricks itself was simply, Kaito did with so much flair and elegance that a crowd soon gathered. As kaito rounded up his impromptu magic show and the crowd dispersed, a young lady, face contorted with worry, was left at the scene.

Her hazel eyes darted about the space that the crowd just emptied with frenzied worry and concern. "emi? Emi" She called as she moved, apparently searching for something or someone. She wore a light pink dress with heels, carried a small fashionable handbag and eyeglasses. She looked in her early 30s or late 20s.

"Emi?" She called out again.

Kaito strolled up to her and asked, 'Is there something wrong miss?"

"Oh. You're that magician just now. Its Emi. My daughter. I can't find her anyway." Her words come out in a flurry, stumbling over each other in her panic.

"wah. Calm down miss." Kaito said as he placed a reassuring hand on the lady's shoulders and ushered the unstable woman to a nearby bench. "Conan-kun, can fetch me a cup of water or tea or something?"

Conan gave a small nod and made his way to the nearest food stall he remembered passing by. He returned quickly with a small cup of warm tea which Kaito gently handed over. The lady drank and became visibly more calm. She gathered her wits about her and began explaining.

"My daughter and I came to visit the school festival." She began. "We caught sight of your magic show on our tour. But there was a large crowd and Emi said, she couldn't see properly and wanted to move in front.I thought that it would be fine since she just wanted to watch the show and let her squeeze into the crowd. But when the show ended, I couldn't see her anywhere!"

"So this Emi-chan. How old is she?" Kaito asked still in a soothing calm voice.

"She's 6."

"What is she wearing?" Conan piped in.

The lady looked at him and replied, "a white dress. She's carrying her red backpack. Her height is about…" She paused had glanced at the shounen tantei-dan before pointing to Ayumi. 'About her height, slightly shorter."

"Ah!" Mitsuhiko suddenly exclaimed. "I think I saw her. Right Genta? Wasn't she just standing beside us?"

"Ah? Us?' Genta replied in confusion. Clearly he didn't remember seeing her.

"Yes! That girl. Her dress has pink flowers on it right?" Mitsuhiko asked.

'yes! Yes! That's her! Did you see where she went?" The mother responded urgently.

"Er? If I remember correctly, she was there at Kaito-niichan's dove out of hat trick but not during his final ribbon trick." Mitsuhiko said after some time of pounding. "as to where she went, I'm not sure… I didn't exactly see her leave."

"Really? There was such as girl?" Genta frowned.

"Oh dear! If I knew this was going to happen, I should have… have…" the woman began emotional again. Ran went over to calm the woman down.

"It's ok. Let it to us, the shounen tantei-dan." chorused Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi.

"Heh? The shounen tantei-dan? That's quite an interesting group." came an unfamiliar voice from behind them.

"MAMA! MAMA!" came a second voice, much higher pitched and clearly uneased. The group surrounding the lady split into two and two figures came into view.

A tall light brown haired male was holding the hand of a much younger girl in a white flowery dress who was crying "Mama! Mama!" at the sight of the lady.

The mother literally leapt from the bench and collapsed into a hug around the girl, repeating murmuring "Emi. Emi. Emi."

"Hm? So the kid got lost during your show Kuroba-kun?" the taller male said with a tinge of mockery.

"What's with that tone? The great magnificent detective Hakuba-san?" Kaito retorted back with sarcasm of his own.

"well, just wandering if the great magician KID had lost his touch. You know letting your audience wander off during your show." the taller male whom Kid called Hakuba said back.

'Oh yeah? I'm sure she's got her reasons and plus, how many times must I say that I am not KID?" Kaito replied with a certain chilling coolness.

"Whatever you say. Kaito Kuroba-kun." Hakuba answered back just as coolly.

Conan watched the spitfire exchange between the two with a bemused eye. The taller male named Hakuba then straightened up and introduced himself. "My name is Sagaru Hakuba. I'm a student here and also a detective. Pleased to meet you all."

"WAH!" Genta exclaimed loudly. "Onii-san you're a detective?"

"Just like Shinichi-oniisan ne?" Ayumi added.

"Shinichi?" Hakuba repeated. 'ah, you mean the high school tantei Kudo Shinichi? You guys know him?"

"Nng! We met him once before!" Mitsuhiko said. "He's Ran-oneesan's boyfriend." Ayumi continued, pointing to the blushing Ran. Sonoko, who was by her side, was nudging her ribs playfully.

"we are the shounen-tantei dan!" Mitsuhiko added.

"Oh. So you're little detectives too!" Hakuba said pleasantly.

At that moment, Kid interrupted and said, 'well little detectives be sure NOT to end up like this irritating Brit onii-san detective here." He warned in a childish tone which earned him the stare from Hakuba.

"Well, I must say that being a detective is MUCH MORE HONORABLE than being a thief like you!"

And so the two returned to their moment of verbal assaults.

The group, deciding unanimously to ignore the two for the moment, turned back to the mother and daughter. "I'm glad you found Emi-chan." Ran said with a warm smile, bending down a giving a small pat onto Emi's head.

"Yes. Thank you!" The lady said. "your name is Hakuba isn't it" She said, interrupting into the childish quarrel between the two. Hakuba heard his name and gave a sheepish smile. He used body language to apologize for the unsightly scene between him and Kaito before continuing, "Yes miss."

"Thank you so very much." The mother clasped her hand into and bowed slightly. Hakuba like a gentlemen returned the bow in the British way. The right hand across his stomach and a bow.

"Ja, I'll be going off for now, little ones. Enjoy the rest of your stay here." Hakuba said before leaving the group. He seemed to be in a rush.

A few moments later as the group was making their way to the inner exhibitions and shows, Genta's stomach gave a very loud growl, making the whole group laugh.

"Come to think of it, we haven't had lunch yet.' Hakase said, looking at his watch. It was already past 1.

"Well, then let's visit my class's café!" Kaito suddenly said brightly which disconcerted Conan. Conan glanced quizzally at Kaito and was the only one who noticed the evil snicker that momentarily flashed across Kaito's face. The snicker made Shinichi pity whoever's on the receiving end of it. Well as it turns out, it's going to be Hakuba, but Shinichi doesn't know that yet.

* * *

yep a little cliffie! next chapter coming soon! Kaito's little 'present' for Hakuba! HAHA!

Shiroi Mi.

I'm so sorry Hakuba. Don't worry its not all THAT BAD! xD


	22. Hakuba

Well here is the promised prank of Kaito's :D Hope you'll like it xD Oh just to clear things up a bit, in my story, Shinichi had never met Hakuba before. xD

* * *

Kaito hustled the group into one of the school buildings, up the stairs and made a show of pranking people as he went. Still because of the large number of people, the group's progress was slow. At several occasions, Conan saw kaito check his watch. _He is definitely up to no good_ Conan told himself.

As the group tried to squeeze their way from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor, by chance, Conan and Kaito found themselves at the last of the group alone together.

"Ne KID-san what are you planning?" Conan asked with a you-cant-deceive-me eye.

Kaito turned to look at him with a sulk. "Hey!" He wanted to retort something smart back to shinichi's deliberate use of his name but decided to let it go because he was TOO EXCITED TO WHAT IS TO COME.

Conan gave him a -.- face. Really that silly magician is really EASY to read when he's excited like this.

Finally after a good 10 mins of so, the group finally FINALLY found themselves at their destination. The café run by Kaito's class. Well, not exactly, they found themselves in the LONG QUEUE outside the café that run by Kaito's class.

The café was extremely popular. Although the room itself had been a standard classroom, the atmosphere was definitely different with the crowd, the noise and the smell. Wharfs of delicious smelling food was everywhere. Conan noticed that most of the customers in line were girls and a large group of them had gathered at the only door that leads to the mysterious inside and were giggling and blushing, pointing and whispering amongst themselves.

Conan took a chance to peer in between them and spotted the reason for Kaito's unnaturally happy mood. The café was a shitsuji café, in other words a butler café. The servers were all males in smartly dressed suits, complete with silver plates and shiny forks. Well, what had Kaito so excited wasn't the shitsuji part, but rather a certain butler there- a certain brown haired Brit detective who did not get along well with Kaito.

Conan quietly rejoined the group. No one had noticed his brief absence.

As the group neared the entrance, Kaito suddenly bent down and whispered to Conan's ears. "You'll get a surprise when you're inside."

"Ah. You mean about Hakuba-san in butler clothes right?" Conan answered back coolly.

Kaito was shocked. "Damn it. How did you know?"

"For one, I am a tantei. Dorobo (thief) -san." Conan smirked back.

The only service lady at the front desk ushered the group in. Kaito spoke loudly to her. "Hmm. I want to designate Hakuba please." His voice resounded in the whole classroom-turned café, catching everyone's eyes. A certain brown haired male gave him a death stare which was returned by an egoistic grin.

Hakuba had rushed away from the Emi case because it was his shift for work. He was still late nevertheless but the class rep had given him slack on it, knowing that he was the responsible type and wouldn't have been late without reason. The café was popular. Not surprising, he himself drew a lot of the guests but so had the other male classmates. The café was a butler café and the customers were treated like lords and ladies.

There was now 10 butlers. They aren't all males though because there wasn't enough good-looking enough males from the class to do the job so they had some girls cross-dress. Hakuba had been dead AGAINST the idea but he gave it up when the class rep had literally begged him with such a desperate look that he, in the moment of sympathy, agreed.

Despite Hakuba's dislike for this kind of fanfare and superficial setting, the effect was wonderful. Aoko had done up the back-scene work well. The suit he was wearing was loaned from some shop. One of his female classmate Miru-chan had a knack for clothings, clothes and design, each of the suits were chosen specifically for their wearer today. Even those for the girls, Miru-chan had selected specific designs so that it would help mask over their more feminine features without seeming too blunt.

Hakuba's was a rich blue. It had depth but at the same time looked gentle on the eye. Usually shitsuji's clothes are black and white but for the café, they had decided to mix a little contemporary in and thus the blue. His blue had a similar shade to the early sky, light and gentle. But the silver, metallic buttons and various chains gave depth to the design. The colours complimented his lighter hair and blue eyes, making the effort something Miru-chan was proud of.

"May I take your orders now ojou-san?" He said to Sonoko, bowing slightly in a graceful manner.

"Ah. Ah." Sonoko flushed pink and stumbled for words.

"Unaju!" Genta said loudly.

"Omu-rice!" "Curry-rice!" "Set A" …

"Understood." Hakuba said as he repeated everyone's orders before bowing loud and leaving. But before he left their table, Conan saw him shot Kaito a sideways glare.

Kaito had made things exceptionally difficult for Hakuba. His exact order was 1 set of grilled chicken with mayo sauce and bbq sauce. Cooked to medium-raw. Salad to include thousand island dressing, french dressing and thaini. In the ration of 4:1:2. No tomatos and cucumbers. Replaced with lettuce leaves. For his sides, he wanted to change the standard fries to baked potato with mayo and cheese. Additional cheese to be put aside in a small bowl for dipping. Drinks wise he ordered a blueberry fizzle with ice cream soup of vanilla and chocolate sauce. Dessert which is to be served later is the strawberry cheesecake. For the chessecake, it wanted to be served cold instead of room-temperature with personal additions of chocolate sticks. And just for the knack of it, he ordered desserts for everyone each with a special edition.

The group stared at kaito who ranted off his orders like a bullet. And when he ended, his eyes read, "dare me to repeat." No human could have copied down his orders at the speed that he spoke at and that included Hakuba. He gave up scribbling about halfway through and just listened. But Hakuba just smiled, rising to the challenge. His eyes replied, "Oh? Wanna test me? I'll show you."

And so there was no repeat of order and Hakuba left to prepare the order.

"Those two don't get along very well do they?" Ran whispered to Sonoko.

Sonoko was spacing out. Ran nudge her friend in the ribs. 'Hey."

Sonoko snapped out of her daydream and turned to Ran. "Oh sorry what is it?" Before Ran could repeat her statement Sonoko continued. 'Don't you think Hakuba looks so handsome? I mean his brown hair and blue eyes. It very different but just as… ahhhhhh…" sonoko gave a lovestruck sigh and returned to her daydream.

"Mou Sonoko!" Ran answered, blushing as she suddenly thought about Shinichi. She shoke her head to rid her thought on Shinichi and returned to making conversation at the table.

The group were having a hearty chat on adventures and camping (which the shounen tantei-dan had lots to tell) when Hakuba returned, pushing a silver posh tray with everyone's order to the perfection. He never for the fun of it repeated Kaito's order word for word at the exact same speed at which he had spoken and ended it with a smirk.

That irritated kaito. He had wanted to embarrass Hakuba by proclaiming (very loudly) at any mistake in the order but there was none.

Kaito and Hakuba looked at each other. Sparks flying between their eyes. Conan for one was glad to be out of this conflict and enjoy his meal in peace. Still nevertheless, he was impressed by Hakuba's memory. Somehow Conan just knew Hakuba's gonna make a good detective. Kaito had purposely gone out of his way to complicate but still Hakuba had got everything perfect. Down right to the silly proportion of salad dressing requirement. Hakuba had been exact and meticulous. The proportions were perfect along with everything else.

After Hakuba left with a victorious smirk, the group enjoyed their very scrumptious lunch. Genta had his beloved unaju rice. 3 bowls of it to be exact. After paying their bills, Kaito was visibly depressed. Conan heard him mutter, "there goes my allowance for the month."

Inwardly Conan thought, "well serve you right I guess." Then he shrugged and move on with the rest of the group.

The next stop of the tour was a fortune telling stall. The decorations were done well, red and black giving the real mysterious mood and skin-pricking sensation of something supernatural. Sonoko had dragged Ran in and then Ayumi also became interested with got Genta and mitsuhiko in. Therefore as their guide, kaito went in and so did conan. Hakase and Haibara however remained outside disinterested.

"Wel~come." said the cloaked figure of purple in a raspy witch like tone. She sat behind a crystal ball with fumes of white smoke surrounding her making the effect more scary than mystical. Sonoko went first. Although she didn't say it explicitly, she was asking about her love life and of course with the latest guy Hakuba who just stole her heart. Ran also asked, even more implicitly on her love life under the guise of asking about the welfare of Shinichi. Ayumi did the same, hinting about Conan. During all these times, the girl in the dark purple cloak had been spoke only in a soft voice sometimes even with a tinge of boredom. Conan just stood beside Ayumi. He wasn't particularly interested to get his future told but he was interested to see what was going on so he was there.

Suddenly, the girl doing the fortune telling suddenly stood up, leaned down over her high fortune-telling table and put her face real close to Conan to the point where their noses were almost touching. Her whole movement and demeanor had changed. Conan had to look cross-eyed to focus on her face. Her eyes had a certain crazed look unlike the mystic distant look just now.

"you." She said in her loud and high-pitched voice, completely different from the soft and raspy voice of just now. "You are shadow-kissed. I see a lot of darkness, secrecy and lies surrounding you but you are saved by shimmers of light around you. You'll be meeting one more today but what this path leads to is no where you want to go."

Shinichi didn't believe in occult and witches. Despite his disregard, the words of the fortune teller had spooked him. Be it guessing or sheer luck, she had been right and that discomforted him. Once outside, he asked Kaito.

"who is she? Do you know?"

"Oh that girl? She's Akako. She's from my class but she representing her club for this year's festival. Besides Hakuba, she's the next person who is real close in guessing my identity. But for her case she based it on her intuition and magic." kaito shrugged at this point and continued. "I don't know if its real but she claims she's a real witch. Her predictions are mostly true I've heard. Rumored to be 100% accurate or something. I don't really deal with her well..."

"Hmm…" was all Conan said as he went deep into thought.

As the group were making their way to the final part of the tour, the outdoor club tours, they crossed path with Aoko. Aoko apologized again for not being able to bring them around as she promised too many last minute disruptions had occurred. "Anything we can help out with?" Ran asked concerned. Aoko was surprised but very thankful for Ran's offer. In actual fact she was almost already at her limits from running around so many places.

'That would save me a lot!" She answered back enthusiastically while clasping Ran's hand in gratitude. Ran gave a little embarrassed smile.

"yep. We'll help you. Friends always help each other.' Sonoko piped in, in one her less irritation moments. The two girls gave Aoko reassuring smiles. Hakase also nodded in approval and the shounen tantei-dan were more than eager to help out. Only Kaito however wasn't enthusiastic. Conan deduced he was still harboring negative feelings over the Hakuba affair.

For the next hour or so, Ran and Sonoko along with the group went around helping Aoko. Conan did his usual disappearing act. It wasn't that he didn't want to help Aoko, he wanted to investigate more into this Hakuba character that caught his eye very much. Plus, Ran, Sonoko and Hakase would be enough to handle the kids. The only one who noticed his disappearance was Haibara but she didn't say anything. She could more or less imagine what he was up to.

Haibara just gave a sigh of resignation and continued hanging out with the kids.

Conan made his way swiftly to the 3rd floor café. As he ran up the stairs, less crowded now, he couldn't help but wonder why Hakuba intrigued him so much and why the fortuneteller's prophecy had nagged him so much.

Conan reached the door to the café and peered in. His small but bright eyes darted and scanned the room professionally and registered no Hakuba. He checked his watch. It was 4.57 almost 3 hours past the time they had lunch. Conan walked up to the same girl who had stood at the door and ushered them in during their lunch time and who was still there now.

"Ne Onee-san!" He said in his high-pitched, innocent voice, complete with an innocent tilt of the head and glassy eyes.

"Nani little boy?" the girl bent down to meet his eyes, clearly dropping all her guards.

"I was supposed to meet my brother here but I don't see him anywhere" Conan said in his disappointed and sorrowful voice.

"Oh dear." The girl said, concernedly, instantly motherly at the sight of such as vulnerable, in need of help boy. "What time were you supposed to meet him?"

"1pm."

"Oh. That noon shift had already knocked off. We changed shift at 3pm." The girl replied back gently.

"oh. Arigato onee-san! Then he might be looking for me too. Ja byebye!" Before the girl could interrupt him to ask him the name of his so-called brother, Conan quickly finished his sentence and ran from her sight.

He walked aimlessly down the corridor and thought. If they had changed shift, it would make things troublesome since Hakuba might just have gone home. Conan had just wanted to talk to Hakuba a little more.

His feet somehow brought him to the soccer club and to a random soccer ball which was discarded at the sidelines. The soccer club was apparently having a mock battle with some of the visitors. Conan picked up the ball and began kicking it as he thought. Kicking a soccer ball somehow always helped him think.

Left. Right. Left. Right. Back. Head. Chest. Feet. Left. Dribble. Right. Dribble. A certain tempo and rhythm begin to pick itself up. Suddenly the ball went off balance the rolled unto the ground. Conan cursed his lack of attention and ran after the ball which had rolled into a nearby shrub.

As he picked the ball up with both hands and stood to stand, he heard a very distinct sound that caused all the hairs on the back of his neck to rise.

It was a sound he was familiar with and a sound that was always acquitted with danger. It was the sound of the gun being cocked and ready for release.

Conan froze involuntarily.

* * *

hey hey. a little cliffie; Hope you all liked it. Next chapter will be: **assault in the shadows**

Thank you for reading

Shiroi Mi


	23. Assault in the shadows

This is a response to a review because I was unable to reply to the person directly. QN: Conan/Shinichi does not know Aoko is Nakamori-keibu's daughter yet right? ANS: Yes. He doesn't. Not yet at least :D

Well, here's the continuation to the cliffy. My sincere apologies for making you all wait. but THANK YOU for waiting and reading on :D

CHAPTER: **Assault in the shadow****s**

* * *

"Stand still." came the voice in English, fluent with no accent. Conan couldn't tell who it was because he was back facing the attacker/(s). He dropped the ball softly to the ground and raised both of his hands.

"That's good. Now tell me who are you?" came the low voice. The attacker was male. The thought of the black org instantly crossed his mind.

"I'm Edogawa Conan, det…" Conan began but before he could finish, the attacker had cut him off.

"No. Tell me who you REALLY ARE."

"eh? But I'm Conan." Shinichi insisted, feigning ignorance. The ball he dropped at his feet, he had dropped it conveniently near his kicking foot. That if such a need arise, he could turn and kick it at the attacker and get enough time to run out and hide amongst the crowd.

He eyed the left courtyard without moving his head. Assuming there was only 1 attacker, he could without a problem, swivel on his left foot and kick it in about 2 seconds total. It was highly unlikely that the attacker would be able to fire first if he did it suddenly and without cue.

The problem was how to turn on his power kicking shoes. If he were to bend down suddenly, it would take 4-5 seconds to get ready and kick which by then would be too late if the attacker had fired.

"Drop the act, kid." The voice came again still in English. "Never mind that, turn around, SLOWLY."

Shinichi did as he was told. He turned to face his attacker. The face of his attacker was hidden by the shadows the tree. But what hit Shinichi first was the colour. He was wearing black. Well besides that, Shinichi was also painfully aware of the gun in his face.

But the second thoughts that Shinichi had was that the gun had no silencer. Which means that either this attack was not planned or that attacker had no fear of people running over when they hear the gunfire which means…. That attacker can blend in very well with the crowd… a student?

"Tell me and stop lying. There is no Edogawa Conan in this world. You and I, we both know it. Spill it WHO ARE YOU?"

Shinichi bid his time. Now that he knew that the gun had no silencer, he was relatively confident that the attacker wouldn't fire unnecessarily because it would definitely draw the crowds in, cutting off his escape and his persistent asking meant that he also wanted information out of him which means he will not kill him too fast.

Either way, it was advantageous to Shinichi.

"Heh? How do you know whether I exist or not?" Shinichi said trying to fish out some information as to how his identity was exposed. There was still a chance that he might turn the tables on this.

"oh. Curious? Well, I did a search on interpol's database, the Japan governmental database as well as the databases of possible 47 countries which you might be born. None of them registered Edogawa Conan. The Teitan Elementary database on your parents were also false and non-existent. The companies that you parents are supposed to be working at is non-existent along with your birth-certificate and hospital records. None of them were under the name Edogawa Conan before this year. Edogawa conan only existed starting this year."

"that's impressive. Anything else to surprise me with?"

"Well, there are much more but you're a dead man walking. What's the point. Now spill it. Who are you?"

The man was alone. During that conversation, Shinichi made sure of it. Which means even if he couldn't set his power-kicking shoes, in such as close distance, he could do a normal soccer kick and hit the man. Sure it wouldn't damage him but it would buy him enough time to run out into the courtyard and into the crowd.

At that moment when the male finished his sentence, Shinichi raised his foot in a stance to kick the ball but the man was one step ahead of him. The soccer ball somehow mysteriously bounced away from his foot. Shinichi was momentarily confused at this but registered what happened in seconds after.

The ball had been hit by the small pebble which the man had tossed from his hand, which was impressive because the rock had travelled at an unbelievably high velocity before colliding with the ball sending the ball flying out of reach of Conan. Shinichi turned to glare back at the attacker.

"I've heard some of you impressive skill from your friends just now." the man said slyly.

This is bad, thought Shinichi. VERY BAD. If this man had gotten to his friends first to ask about him, who knows what other things he might have done…

"You didn't do anything to them right?" Shinichi snared.

"Well. Nothing as of yet." the man said back coolly. "well depending on your answer, I might be feeling differently later on."

Shinichi knew this was not Gin nor Vodka. It might be Vermouth or someone completely new. No, in the first place, he can't confirmed if this black-cloaked man is from _them_.

"Tell me what you want with me." Shinichi said by in a confident, self-assured tone although inwardly he was panicking because he was fast running out of options.

"well, nothing in particular. Just perhaps a little chat. All these depends on what you tell me next."

"a little chat with a gun in hand. That's sound form of 'little chat'" Shinichi spat back.

"There are times when such things are needed. Enough jibberish, spill it. Who are you?" impatience crept into the voice of the man.

'Whose orders are you from?" Shinichi insisted.

"I've reached the end of my patience little one. WHO ARE YOU?"

'_little one"_ the phrase rang an alarm bell in Conan's head. He had heard this particular use of word before very very recently. BUT WHERE? Suddenly he remembered. It was at the Emi-case. There was a particular someone who had used that term in that unique drawl of the voice.

"Ne. What are you going to do when I tell you, Hakuba-niisan" Shinichi said returning to his Conan voice.

"Ho? How did you figure out?" the man from the shadows took a step forward and out of the shadows. The afternoon sunlight lit his face to show a familiar brown hair, blue eyed figure.

"the use of the term little one. From the Emi-case. Before you left, you used that exact same term. And when you say it there is this particular drawl of the voice at little and so I recognized you." Conan explained.

"Right. I see. Mah back to that topic Conan-kun, who are you? I'm sure you are not just an elementary student. When I first met you this morning at the Emi case, something in yours eyes remind me of someone and something in your movements seem unnatural."

"That's one sharp eye." Shinichi said. He dropped his Conan voice. He was impressed with the perception level of Hakuba. Although he couldn't decide just yet whether he could trust this guy.

"I'll take that as a compliment little one." Hakuba said again. "stop changing the topic Conan-kun, who are you?"

Shinichi debated whether to tell him and truth and how much of it to tell him. Can this guy be trusted even? What if he was from _them_ in disguise, doing so to trap him?

_Flashback_

_"you." She said in her loud and high-pitched voice, completely different from the soft and raspy voice of just now. "You are shadow-kissed. I see a lot of darkness, secrecy and lies surrounding you but you are saved by shimmers of light around you. You'll be meeting one more today but what this path leads to is not where you want to go." _

Suddenly Shinichi have a strong feeling that Hakuba was this 'light' the fortune-teller was talking about. Furthermore, when Hakuba had met them in the morning, Haibara didn't pick up any vibe from him.

"well, for now Hakuba-san can we set this toy aside?" Shinichi eyed the gun. "Although it is a bit embarrassing to admit, my hands are tired of being held up like this."

Hakuba eyed him intensively as if assessing if this unknown boy living in a hidden identity meant any harm. Than deciding no, he set his gun back into place. He reengaged the safety and put in back into this hoister beneath his black cloak.

Shinichi was relieved upon seeing him do so. He let down him arms which were very sore at that point.

"I never knew British detectives had access to Interpol and all the databases." He began.

"well, I'm quite a hacker myself. I won't call in hacking though because I just look at information and leave no trace." Hakuba shrugged.

"Right." Shinichi was impressed. "and the gun? I don't think this meeting as pre-arranged right?"

"well no." Hakuba said back truthfully with a shrug. "If it was I would have bought a silencer."

"I realized."

At the moment, both Hakuba and Shinichi felt a special kind of respect and awe for each other. Their wavelengths had matched.

"Ok. So what did I do wrong that send you hacking away for my data?"

"Nothing in particular. Just your eyes." Hakuba said, looking once again into the eyes of Shinichi with ferocious intensity "Your eyes are too deep, if you get what I mean. Seen too much and have too much to hide."

"Really? I never noticed myself." Shinichi answered back honestly.

"oh and also the conversation with the girl at the café just now. You were looking for me right? I'm quite sure you don't have a brother in my class." Hakuba said. " So care to tell me who are you really? I have some hunches but I don't want to say them."

"Fine. I'm Kudo Shinichi." Conan said flatly.

"Hmm… So as I've thought." Hakuba commented just a calmly. "the date of your appearance and the date of Kudo Shinichi's disappearance from the media matched and it's kind of too much to be coincidence right?

"Mah. I got myself into a pretty troublesome case and took a poison that got my shrunk, so for now I'm edogawa conan. Say Hakuba, the data you managed to get is it easily attainable?"

"concerned about the security? No worries there. It may be egoistic for me to say but I am quite sure that I am about the only one who could have gotten those information." Hakuba answered. He took out a book from his cloak and flipped it to the first page for Conan to see.

Shinichi was impressed. The identity card had written.

Sagaru Hakuba

Nationality: Brit-Jap

INTERPOL SPECIAL AGENT

"Yep so this what I am. No hacker can get into interpol database." Hakuba grinned confidently. "which is why it is unlikely for anyone else to be able to get the information I've got."

That did the trick. After seeing Hakuba's credentials, Shinichi was confident that Hakuba was the next member he needed for his final attack to bring down the black org.

'Ne Hakuba, say does Interpol have data on large possible trans-national syndicates?"

Hakuba was surprised but pleased at the question. He could tell that he had won Shinichi over. "of course, that's what we are for."

"Say…. any information on criminal group related to liquor?"

* * *

Finally! the alliance is coming together. Hakuba, Hattori, Kaito, Haibara and Shinichi. Were you surprised that the attacker was Hakuba?

But Shincihi approved of Hakuba, will Kaito? The two of them doesn't exactly get on very well~~

Well just to clarify things a little: In this story, Hakuba had never met Shinichi before, which would explain Shinichi's hesitance at first. And Hakuba is not very famous in Tokyo yet. Before all those things in the anime :D

Yours, Shiroi Mi.

Thank you for reading and please review if you feel like it :D


	24. Uneasy Alliance

well Hakuba's invited to the alliance to take down the black org by Shinichi but how will Kaito react to it. How will Hattori react to another Brit in the group apart from Haibara? the power status quo in the group is going to change with the new member.

CHAPTER: **uneasy alliance**. Here Hakuba meets the members of Shinichi's alliance for the first time Hakase's basement. Let's see how things go. x.x

* * *

"I really don't like this, tantei-kun" came the voice of KID. or rather Kaito. He wasn't in disguise. The alliance were currently in Hakase's basement for a meeting to welcome the newest member, Sagaru Hakaba.

"I can't say I like this either, Kudo." Hattori's Kansai ben resounded in the room.

Currently, Shinichi, Kaito and Hattori were in the small dim room of the basement, discussing about the decision to take in Hakuba into the alliance.

"Well I don't know if we should trust this Hakuba guy… we don't know even a single thing about him." Hattori complained.

For a rare moment, Hattori and Kaito actually NODDED IN AGREEEMENT!

Shinichi gave a big yawn which morphed half way into a sigh.

"We have been through this conversation just now. I'm certain of his skills as a tantei and plus you guys have met before right? How can you say you all know NOTHING about him?" Shinichi said.

"Well yeah but how can we know if he should be trusted? He might be with _them._ You know? He just have this... this... aura kind of thing that makes people very hard to trust him on face value" Hattori retorted back.

Just then a knock came from the door, Hakuba had arrived.

"I'm sure you'll be convinced once he introduces himself." shinichi said with a mysterious grin as he walked over to the door and opened it for Hakuba.

"Konnichiwa Conan-kun or is it safe for me to call you Kudo-kun here?." Hakuba greeted as he stepped through the door. "Konnichiwa Hattori Heiji-kun and classmate Kuroba-kun." He gave a smile to the three occupants in the room. He had greeted them even before he set on eyes of each of them as if he already knew that they were going to be inside beforehand.

"How did ya know tat we'll be 'ere?" Hattori asked back confused.

"Well, I've been since here half an hour ago watching each of you arrive." Hakuba said with a self-assured smile.

"See tantei-kun, we shouldn't admit such a _**creepy**_ guy!" Kaito wined. shooting hakuba a disgusted look. He and Hakuba just can't seem to get along.

Hakuba was about to retort back with some "comment" (read: abuse) of his own when Shinichi interrupted.

"Mah. Mah. Calm down. I haven't filled Hakuba with the details yet but anyway let's give him a chance to introduce himself? Anyway Hakuba you can just called me Kudo here if you want, even if it isn't safe these two have already called me that enough times to incriminate me if need" Conan replied as the he led Hakuba into the center of the room.

"well then, I'm Hakuba. And this is me." He said as he once again fished out his pass and showed his interpol ID.

That got both kaito and Hattori to shut up.

In that moment of silence, Shinichi added. "He confronted me yesterday. He found out my identity by himself. Just like the both of you. I'm sure you'll approve of his capabilities."

"So what is this details that you haven told me yet." Hakuba asked. Shinichi was impressed once again with his sharpness and keenness for details.

Shinichi opened his mouth and was about to explain or say something when Kaito interrupted.

"Nothing for you to know, Mr-stalker-tantei" Kaito said in his sing-song mocking voice and folded his arms again his chest. "Stalking out half an hour before - _dramatic shiver- _is so creeeeepy~" Kaito said exaggerated in his singsong voice.

"Oh. Well. Well. If it isn't Kuroba Kaito!" Hakuba said with mocking surprise. "How lovely to see you here. What a surprise indeed that a **thief** is hanging out with detectives."

Kaito stuck a tongue out at Hakuba. Then he turned to Shinichi, "Pretty please we kick this guy out now?"

Shinichi gave him a dead-pan stare.

"Well honestly kudo, so wha' if this guy's from int'erpol? I mean he isn't involved' wif the blac' org now so why brin' him wif us?" Hattori asked.

"well. I didn't ask him only on the basis that he is interpol. Well, his arh… ahem….information gathering skills are top-notched. And I'm sure Kaito, you would agree with me on his ability to remember details." Shinichi raised a knowing eyebrow at Kaito.

Kaito sulked and turned away as he remembered the festival café affair. He was still broke from then.

"Well. Well. It seems that these two members are hard to please without a demonstration." Hakuba said giving a non-chalent shrug.

"Well if you really need a demonstration here goes." Hakuba said and sat down at the table in the middle of the room and opened his computer. The computer set up quickly and gave an obedient beep as it finished setting up.

"Hmm. What information do you want?" He asked with a comfortable smile as if he was doing a very confident *legitimate* business. His long fingers rested elegantly on the keyboard, pretty much at home.

"what about hospital records? They are kind of hard to get. How about the medical report of James Tony?" Kaito asked, intrigued at this unknown side of Hakuba. He knew Hakuba had a superb memory, was good with numbers and information but as a hacker?

"Sure thing," Hakuba said giving him a positively creepy smile. Kaito shivered again. This time Kudo was not so sure if he was acting.

With that, his fingers began typing in a flurry, multiple programs were set to run. Pop-up boxes opened one after another in rapid succession and the computer whirled into life. Despite not being told who or what was this James Tony, nor which hospital whether in Japan or not, Hakuba moved and typed so fast that the many pairs of eyes in the room couldn't follow couldn't follow.

"Got it." He said after 10 mins as all the programs stopped running and only a single window was left open. It was the said patient's medical records.

"James Tony. Belgain Sheepdog. 3 surgeries at Evergreen Hospital, United States, Texas. First Skin Abscess, Inflammation surgery in 1992. Second fracture in the hind legs and tail bone in 1994. Third bladder stones in 1999. passed away since 2000. Do you want me to read on, Kuroba-kun?" Hakuba said with another victorious grin.

'Fine. You win." Kaito said, in a half-sulk. He wasn't exactly pleased that Hakuba yet again took a victory from him in a challenge but this time, he was impressed secretly. Even with his KID resources and computer and accomplices and network, it would have at least taken half a day for such information to be obtained.

It had only been 10 mins and Hakuba had managed to enter into so many protected databases of hospitals. Plus, Kaito didn't tell him that James Tony was an animal and not a person. So he had to check through all the hospital records before checking through all the veterinary reports. And this was in US.

"Who tis James Tony?" Hattori asked over from Hakuba's shoulders, eager to take a closer look at the report.

"Oh. The dog of a friend of mine. She moved to US when I was little but my family visited her often. The surgeries are accurate." Kaito said back lazily, waving his hands as if to brush off the whole affair.

"so I passed the test?" Hakuba asked.

'yar. More or less. In any case, we can't really dispute with what Kudo has in mind." Hattori said back, moving back to his perch on the sofa with a shrug of his shoulders.

And so, everyone got back to their seats. Kaito, being Kaito, was prancing and bouncing off whatever surface he could find. Shinichi did not even want to START describe what kind of possible sit-able surface kaito had found in the room, beginning with the top of the computer. Hattori was slouching, relaxed on his perch on the sofa. His long tan arms and legs stretched out. He had taken the bullet train after receiving Kudo's message.

Shinichi was seated on the one seat sofa that was in the opposite side of the room from Hattori. So from Hakuba's position which is in the middle of the room, Shinichi/Conan on his left, Kaito arh… somewhere in the middle and Hattori on his right.

"So. Anyone going to start filling me in?' Hakuba said as he stood up from his laptop and removed himself from the table.

All eyes turned to Shinichi.

"Eh me? I don't want to repeat it anymore. Really. I'm getting quite sick of saying it again and again myself. Why not you two fill Hakuba in?" Shinichi said with a deliberate yawn.

"Ou! SURE!" Hattori suddenly exclaimed, very excited at something. "Let me start telling ya about how KAITO got himself busted!" He said loudly and proudly.

'Hey!' kaito immediately jumped to his defense. "I. Did. Not. Get. Busted!" He said, leaping up from his seat and standing to face Hattori.

"Oh yah~ You sure did!" Hattori retorted back.

"well, if I didn't get sniped there was no way you would have gotten me tantei-han~" kaito smirked in his sing-song voice.

"Hurmph." Hattori snorted back. "It was just a matter of time." He said coolly

"Oh not it wasn't." Kaito said back.

Hakuba stared at the commotion between the two and turned to look at Shinichi who was still as unconcerned as ever, seating comfortable on his sofa with a book at hand (where he got it from was a mystery). Hakuba walked away from the commotion side and towards him.

'Is it ok to leave them like that?" He whispered to Shinichi.

Shinichi raised a eyebrow at the two quarrelling figures at the opposite side of the room . "well no worries because if they keep doing that, a certain person is gonna shut them up soon enough."

Hakuba wondered who it was and if 'the certain person' meant him.

But before he could ask anything further, the door to the room suddenly swung over in a very very loud clash, shutting the two of them instantly.

"can't you all be a little quieter?" came a very high pitched and loud screech? Or maybe closer to shrill? From the door. "I don't mind you all gathering here, but do be considerate of where you are?" the person was a very young girl, about same age as Conan. She was positively fuming.

"if you continue to make such a din" the girl continued, "I'm going to make sure you all can NEVER speak again." She finished and gave all of them her signature glare and left the room angrily. As she left, the door, as if planned, closed after her in an unusually slow motion with lots of friction noise.

The girl's sudden interruption left a deathly silence in the room. All of them except Shinichi had their eyes fixed on the door at which the elementary girl had left, staring in disbelief and slight stun.

"See. I told you so.' Shinichi said to hakuba into the deathly silence.

"Well apologies for the late introduction, the girl just now is Haibara. She's the last member of this group. Well at least I hope she is." Shinichi said in a relaxed tone and clapped his book shut.

Then turning to the still stunned Hattori and Kaito he added, "about the part of making sure you never speak again. It's true. She's recently succeeded in her research in permanently destroying one's vocal chords with a small pill." Shinichi filled them in.

At that, Kaito and Hattori stared at each other and gulped. Then both forced a smile as they mentally reminded themselves NEVER NEVER to make Haibara angry.

Hakuba was just as surprised, or perhaps more so, since he had never met Haibara properly before. He had spotted the girl from the shounen tantei-dan but he had not heard her speak or anything.

'well, so Hattori and kaito, I trust that you all will explain everything calmly to Hakuba now?" shinichi said with a smile dripping with sarcasm. Perhaps he had been staying around Haibara for a little too long.

"Hmph. Fine. You can do it. I'll go teach tantei-kun about disguises and stuff. Since it is a good opportunity now. It is very rare we meet up anyway." Kaito said as he turned away from hattori and walked towards tantei-kun, picking him up in a bear hug before Shinichi could protest.

"Hei. hei." Hattori answered as he motioned Hakuba towards his side of the room and filled him in with the details.

"but I insist that I did not get busted!" Kaito said as his farewell line to the duo as he and tantei-kun relocated themselves to only mirror in the room.

* * *

Well Kaito's little secret is somewhat safe for now... but for how long? although Kaito revealed his identity to Shinichi and Hattori who took an oath of promise that they will not take advantage of the situation in which they found Kaito and his identity.

But when Hakuba finds out will he keep kaito's secret or choose the other option of chucking him off to the police? Corrections, to INTERPOL!

Well next chapter, Hakuba and Kaito's tension reach the peak. Will the alliance hold on or crumble?

Shiroi Mi


	25. The art of disguise

ShIROI Mi is back! The ART of disguise. To fully enjoy this you need to imagine the scenes~

Here goes:

* * *

"Hmm. So guys with liquour in their names…" hakuba muttered in response to something Hattori had just explained.

The two of them were in the corner of a room. Hattori was recounting the major events to keep Hakuba updated.

Meanwhile, in the opposite end of the room, Kaito was giving Shinichi his very first lesson in disguise.

"It is very important. You MUST do it." kaito insisted.

Conan gave him a half-disbelieving and half-insulted look.

"Yes. It is of VITAL IMPORTANCE!" Kaito stressed. "that we work out all of facial muscles appropriately so that we can pull off any expression and faces when needed to!"

Well, it wasn't that Shinichi couldn't see the logic in that but to be expected to laugh and very loudly and uncontrollably at nothing very funny is outright weird and disconcerting.

Kaito sighed.

"You see. You are always frowning, if not doing this… this… or this…" Kaito said as he pulled of the Kudo's face exaggerated. "You hardly ever work your smiling muscles! You MUST!"

Shinichi gave a sigh. Kaito was dead serious about this. Well at least maybe he could try to give a big smile….

"Just pull you cheek muscles outwards and upwards. And let air through your mouth. It is very easy! Come on tantei-kun!" Kaito continued saying, getting exasperated.

He didn't expect getting tantei-kun to so difficult to handle. Isn't laughing a natural human expression? His father had always told him to begin his disguise lessons by stretching muscles and laughing.

Seeing's Kaito's continued insistence at this small little thing, Shinichi gave it a try. He pulled back his cheek muscle as far back as he could and closed his eyes in the process.

Upon seeing that, Kaito was beyond shock. He was flattered that tantei-kun was trying so hard for his sake but… THAT would definitely in no dictionary be defined as a LAUGH or much less a SMILE! It was positively in every aspect a GRIMACE!

After Shinichi did that, he turned to look expectantly at Kaito for some form of comment on his efforts. Kaito sincerely didn't know what to say without sounding to harsh.

"arh…" He began, looking uncomfortably into tantei-kun's eyes. "That… is a good attempt." He said weakly. "You need to relax your jaw line a bit more and relax your lower cheek muscle so that when you pull back your higher cheek muscles, it will curve up more."

Kaito did a demonstration. He gave Shinichi a perfect smile. Teeth shown, mouth opened, perfectly symmetrical and brilliantly shining.

"Why not you give it one more try?" Kaito said gently.

"Hmph. Fine" came the response as Shinichi pulled, yet another, grimace. Kaito gave a resigned sigh.

"Ok that will do for now. Please practice your smile and laugh some times in front of the mirror." Kaito said. Maybe turning to another practice would be better and more suited for tantei-kun.

"So let's move on to exercising the various facial muscles besides the most commonly cheek muscles. In disguise, you need to be able to pull off the various expressions that the person you are imitating often do, including their own slight variations. Even if it is just a smile, there are many many many variations and everyone do each variation differently. That's why the master of disguise observes very keenly and notes this little changes. I'm sure you can do that without a problem but the problem is in how you translate what you see onto you own face.

To be able to do that, you need to be able to have individual control of each muscle group on your face." Kaito explained.

"Well, let me give you a demonstration. Mouri Ran. You are familiar with right?"

Shinichi gave a nod.

"her smile is caressing and free, open, with nothing to hide. Like this." Kaito gave a smile that belonged more to Ran's face than his. Shinichi could see the distinct resemblance. When Ran smiled, he always noted the slight tilt of her head and the sincere feel of it, just as the smile on Kaito's face now.

"and compare to Suzuki Sonoko's smile. Hers is a tad more uptight and a little on the more self-assured and self-confident side." Kaito smiled again. This time, it had the feel of a rich, well-to-do gentleman.

"Of course, since I may not in full make-up. You might note slight differences in the feel of the smile. But you get the principles right?" kaito asked.

Shinichi gave a nod. The smiles, the same muscle groups but so totally different. He was very amazed.

Kaito gave his Kuroba smile (not the KID grin) at his eager and keen student.

"So to be able to do these, you need to be able to control your muscle groups well. So let us start exercising them now." Kaito said.

"look into the mirror and try to copy me." He instructed. Both of them turned to face a mirror.

Kaito pulled a face. His forehead squashed together towards the center, his nose winkled with tension and his mouth squeezed towards the center to form an expression much like a person pulling an angry face.

Shinichi tried to follow. But it turned out to look more constipated than angry, totally unnatural.

Every few seconds, kaito would change his expression and Shinichi would try as much as he could to follow. The result was a bizarre series of weird faces.

This caught the attention of the other two.

"What on earth as they doing?" Hattori said with a frown as he watched the two almost look-alike brothers pulling strange faces into the mirror.

"weren't Kaito saying about disguise or something?" Hakuba said as he turned around to look at them as well. It was quite bizarre and strange, unsettling even.

"Well, it looks more like a freak show!" hattori said.

Hakuba pushed his glasses up a bit. "Truth to be told, I can't dispute with that comment."

The two laughed softly together. Then turning back almost simultaneously, they continued their discussion about the black organization and the current progress of the alliance.

After an hour of torture to both Kaito and Shinichi, the two were exhausted and they decided to stop the lesson there and then. Shinichi was exhausted because he was pulling muscles that his had never never felt the need to use them before and kaito exhausted from teaching.

He had expected things to go unexpectedly or something but he never expected tantei-kun to be so… so… he couldn't even find a word to describe it!

Kaito thought back to the time he watched Shinichi shift easily from Conan to Shinichi and to the reserve, playing the role that was expected of him but when asked to do so on command seem to just too far out of the league for tantei-kun. Well, things will get better as they go along. Kaito consoled himself and he too, took a deep seat into the sofa, liking the cushion of the sofa embrace his tired body.

"Oh you guys are done?" Hattori commented as the two of them both slouched into the sofa, heads tilting back to rest on the sofa backing.

"Yeah more or less. How's the talk?" Kaito was the one who spoke.

"Oh we completed long ago. Hakuba's just checking out some information about those guys." Hattori replied.

"Information?" Shinichi sat up, eyes opened with hope.

"No tat much, you're thinkin'. Just some bits here and thare" Hattori said.

"Not as much as I hoped Kudo-kun. Well, it's just that Interpol's database is pretty big and without knowing exactly what we are searching for, it is like finding a needle in the haysack." Hakuba explained. "we have a list of possible files that might be related to them but it will take time to examine them. If your search citeria is just black, organization, the pool of information is kind of very big."

"Oh… I guess that's to be expected. We need more defining characteristics." Shinichi said, as his closed his eyes again and leaned back to rest his head.

"Well, it's still something." kaito added in the followed silence. "And just out of curiosity, Hakuba what did Hattori-kun tell you about me? I have to make sure that truths are not being twisted." Kaito said with a grin.

"Well. I think Hattori said it quite reasonably. You met Kudo during a magic show right? Somewhere in Osaka which is why Hattori was there. By the way, I never knew you performed magic show professionally. Back to the topic, you got sniped by some guy. A guy from the organization that you guys are after and kudo and Hattori saved you." Hakuba recounted calmly. "Well at that part, I'm sure Hattori-kun here added just a bit of melodrama about blood and the way he carried you like a potato sack and stuff, but I get the gist of it." Hakuba said.

"Oh…. Ok." Kaito replied tentatively. He eyed Hattori who gave him a smile back. Hattori had not told Hakuba of his identity yet.

_"it is more of your story to tell, if you wish." Hattori's eyes said. _

_'Thanks' Kaito eyed back_

"Did I miss something?" Hakuba asked, noting the lack of response and the strange silence that he felt. It seemed as if an unspoken conversation had happened without him inside.

"No. That's about right. Although I must insist, that it was Kudo-kun here who saved me." Kaito stressed, giving them a grin.

And the meeting then broke up and the four males left the Hakase house their own ways. Hakuba walked out of the front door which he had came in. Hattori snuck out the back. Shinichi led Kaito through the secret pathway from Hakase's that lead into the basement of the Kudo mansion while he himself left through the front door of hakase's after Hakuba as Conan.

* * *

Next chapter is an unexpected peak, one that I really love: A night visit.

HAKUBA vs KID =3

Shiroi Mi


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